‘The life of an angel’: Plainfield monument dedicated to slain 6-year-old

The Plainfield community gathered with family of Wadee Alfayoumi on Saturday to dedicate a monument to honor the life of a 6-year-old Palestinian American whose life was brutally cut short.

The monument, located at Van Horn Woods East Playground in Plainfield, will preserve the memory of Wadee Alfayoumi, who was stabbed to death Oct. 14, 2023, in an anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim hate crime in Plainfield.

“We are here to memorialize the life of an angel who lived in this town,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, during the dedication ceremonies. He later added, “And we believe in a merciful God.”

Fran Leeman, pastor of LifeSpring Community Church in Plainfield, said Wadee’s murder was “that wake-up call that hatred and violence are not the way.”

“And they will never be the way,” Leeman said.

Will County Sheriff’s Office social workers Bonnie McPhilips and Brittany Gruver stood together while McPhillips read a statement by Will County Sheriff Dan Jungles.

McPhillips read how Wadee’s monument will symbolize a space where children of all backgrounds can live and play together.

“We will never stop working toward a world where hate has no home,” McPhillips read.

Trisha Mathias, Wadee’s teacher at Bonnie McBeth Early Learning Center in Plainfield, shared aspects of Wadee’s personality: He always wore his snow boots to school, always chose the red ball on the playground, loved graham crackers and goldfish crackers, and “was obsessed” with the planets.

“Wadee would have loved to play on this playground,” Mathias said.

Other speakers included Sheikh Hassan Aly, who delivered the opening prayer; Jane Ramsey, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice; and Soha Khatib of the Palestinian Youth Movement, who grew up in Bolingbrook.

Odai Alfayoumi, father of Wadee Alfayoumi, thanked everyone for not forgetting his son.

“For that, I am eternally thankful,” Rehab translated for Odai Alfayoumi.

Joseph Czuba, 73, a former Plainfield Township landlord, was convicted in February for the first-degree murder of Wadee Alfayoumi and the attempted murder of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.

Czuba also was convicted of a hate crime by attacking the mother and child on the basis of their Islamic faith.

Shaheen and Wadee were tenants at Czuba’s residence in Plainfield Township.

Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 53 years in prison: 30 years for Wadee’s murder, 20 years for Shaheen’s attempted murder and three years for a hate crime.