Boy’s slaying, police dog killed, Juneteenth tragedy: The year in suburban crime news
A little boy is killed just for being Palestinian.
A man dies at a party celebrating freedom.
And hundreds of people attend a funeral for a police dog fatally shot in a shootout — in which a man also was killed.
These came to mind when we thought about some of the top local crime news the Daily Herald covered in 2023.
Boy killed in alleged hate crime
The nation was shocked by the death of 6-year-old Wadee AlFayoumi, who was stabbed 26 times Oct. 14 in his home near Plainfield. His mother, Hanaan Shaheen, also suffered severe injuries in the attack.
Authorities say their landlord, Joseph Czuba, was their attacker. Fueled by anger over the Israel-Hamas war, the 71-year-old suspect reportedly yelled “you Muslims must die!” as he assaulted the Palestinian Americans, authorities said.
The day of the murder, Czuba argued with Shaheen about the conflict, authorities said. She reportedly responded by suggesting they pray together for peace.
President Joe Biden mentioned Wadee in an Oct. 20 speech about the Israel-Hamas war.
“His name was Wadee — Wadee — a proud American, a proud Palestinian American family,” Biden said. “We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens.”
Party turns deadly
A large party celebrating Juneteenth turned deadly when someone opened fire on a crowd in the parking lot of a strip mall near Willowbrook, killing one and injuring 22 others.
The party-goers were celebrating the holiday that commemorates the date in 1865 when slaves in Texas learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been declared more than two years earlier.
Reginald Meadows, 31, was killed. Nobody has been charged with his death.
Man, police dog die in shootout
A carjacking suspect and a police dog died May 24 in a weekday afternoon shootout at one of Kane County’s busiest intersections.
Kane County Sheriff’s deputies chasing James Moriarty, 38, along Randall Road managed to stop him just south of Fabyan Parkway on the Batavia-Geneva border. Moriarty and sheriff’s dog Hudson were killed in an exchange of gunfire that followed.
Hundreds of people and more than 100 police and therapy dogs attended a funeral for Hudson eight days later.
Highland Park suspect, dad make waves
The suspect in the mass shooting that killed seven at Highland Park's 2022 Independence Day parade and his father both made headlines in the final months of 2023.
Robert Crimo III stunned courtroom observers Dec. 11 when he told a Lake County judge he was parting ways with his court-appointed defense team and would serve as his own attorney when he faces trial. He’s charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder and dozens of other charges stemming from the parade massacre.
The 23-year-old also demanded his trial ASAP, moving the proceeding from a likely start date of early 2025 to February 2024.
In the meantime, his father, Robert Crimo Jr., was set to face a trial of his own Nov. 6 on reckless conduct charges alleging he helped his son obtain a firearms owner's identification card in 2019, despite knowing that the then-teenager had made threats of violence. But just before the trial was set to begin, Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of reckless conduct and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Crimo Jr. would draw a judge's ire nine days later when he turned himself in wearing a T-shirt reading "I'm A Political Pawn" on the front and "LAWS FACTS REALITY" on the back.
Freed 16 years later
Nearly 12 years after a judge sentenced him to life in prison for the 2006 murder of an aspiring hip-hop musician from Rolling Meadows, Patrick Taylor walked out of the Cook County jail Oct. 11 a free man.
In all, Taylor spent 16 years locked up for the killing before Cook County prosecutors dismissed the charges against him, citing missing or lost evidence that had not been turned over by police. Because of that new evidence, prosecutors said they no longer believe Taylor could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“It's a blessing he's home. But that's not a sign of the system working," Taylor attorney Elliot Slosar said back in October. "That's a sign of the failures that led us here.”
Taylor, of Chicago, had been accused of fatally shooting 30-year-old Marquis Lovings during a 2006 robbery at the victim's Rolling Meadows home.
Brothers killed near Glenview
The Glenbrook South High School community was in mourning in August after incoming junior Jose Guzman-Ezquivel, 16, and his brother, 19-year-old graduate Carlos Guzman-Ezquivel, were shot to death near their Glenview-area home.
A major update in the case came Wednesday, when Cook County sheriff's police announced the arrest of four suspects in the killings, which authorities allege were carried out in revenge for an earlier altercation.
Relatives described the slain teens as caring sons and siblings, who loved playing soccer and had bright futures.
Former state rep. pleads guilty
Once seen as an up-and-comer in state politics, the budding career of Nick Sauer came crashing down in 2018, when a former girlfriend publicly accused him of distributing nude photos of her online without her permission.
Sauer, 41, took a plea deal in November in which he admitted to attempted nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 24 months of probation.
The former Republican lawmaker from Lake Barrington represented the 51st House District, which included much of central Lake County and a portion of Cook County. He resigned Aug. 1, 2018.
Father admits to killing 3 kids
A Round Lake Beach man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill this year to murdering his three young children in 2022.
Jason Karels was accused of drowning his children — Bryant, 5, Cassidy, 3, and Gideon, 2 — at a Round Lake Beach home on June 13, 2022. Authorities said he left a note reading, “If I can’t have them neither can you,” for his estranged wife, who discovered her children’s bodies.
Family feud turns deadly
At one point, brothers Mario and Marciano Martinez were close enough that they ran a business together — Dockers restaurant in Fox Lake.
But on May 16, a lingering feud turned deadly when Marciano, 63, shot his 56-year-old brother in the restaurant's kitchen then followed him outside as he fled for his life. After shooting his brother several more times, the older Martinez shot himself to death.
Mario Martinez survived the shooting.
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