SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Progressive icon and former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee declared victory Saturday as the new mayor of troubled Oakland, a San Francisco Bay Area city reeling from economic stagnation, crime and homelessness.
Lee issued a statement Saturday as mayor-elect, saying that her chief opponent, Loren Taylor, had called to concede the April 15 race.
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Former Rep. Barbara Lee makes her first public appearance as Oakland's Mayor-elect, alongside interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, center, and Councilmember At-Large Rowena Brown at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Former Rep. Barbara Lee makes her first public appearance as Oakland's Mayor-elect, alongside interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
“While I believe strongly in respecting the democratic voting process and ballots will continue to be counted ... the results are clear that the people of Oakland have elected me as your next Mayor," she said. "Thank you, Oakland!"
Lee, 78, is a Black female trailblazer who represented the city in Congress for over two decades before retiring last year after running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.
“Oakland is a deeply divided City,” she said, adding that she “answered the call to run” so the community could work together to solve its problems.
Lee was endorsed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and other previous Oakland mayors who said she was the seasoned, uniting presence the city needed after a divisive recall of former Mayor Sheng Thao in November. Thao was indicted on federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges in January.
Oakland has about 400,000 residents and is deeply liberal and multicultural, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and claimed by former Vice President Kamala Harris as her hometown.
But Oakland also is reeling from homeless tents, public drug use, illegal sideshows, gun violence and brazen robberies that prompted In-N-Out Burger to close its first location ever last year.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent California Highway Patrol officers to help combat what he called an alarming and unacceptable rise in crime. And the city doesn’t have enough money to pay for public services.
Despite her high name recognition, the race was surprisingly heated with Taylor, 47, a former Oakland city council member who pledged to bolster police, reduce crime and revitalize the city's economy.
Taylor said in a statement that “while the outcome was not what we worked for and hoped for,” he was proud of the campaign and the bold ideas he introduced.
On the campaign trail, Lee emphasized the need for more community services as well as more police. Economic development, job creation and ensuring core city services like fire hydrants work properly are among her priorities.
She will finish out the remainder of Thao's term and would be up for reelection in November 2026.
Lee was first elected to the U.S. House in 1998 and became best known nationally as the only lawmaker to vote against the 2001 authorization for the use of military force in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Former Rep. Barbara Lee makes her first public appearance as Oakland's Mayor-elect, alongside interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, center, and Councilmember At-Large Rowena Brown at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Former Rep. Barbara Lee makes her first public appearance as Oakland's Mayor-elect, alongside interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in Oakland in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee speaks during her election night watch party in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy's mother in a brutal hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years in the boy's death and another 20 years consecutively for the attack on Shaheen. The judge also sentenced him to three years imprisonment for hate crimes. The length of the sentence makes it all but certain he will die behind bars.
Czuba did not speak during the sentencing. His attorney, George Lenard, didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The boy's great-uncle, Mohmoud Yousef, was the only family member who spoke during the hearing. He said that no matter the sentence length it wouldn't be enough. The boy's parents had plans for him and Czuba robbed them of that, he said.
Yousef asked Czuba to explain why he attacked the boy and his mother, asking him what news he heard that provoked him, but Czuba did not respond, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors' case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba's wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child's body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee's relatives.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning a verdict.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee's funeral drew large crowds and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover.
She said there were no prior issues in the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a living room. Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen, who testified at trial in English and Arabic though a translator.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Yousef told reporters after the hearing that Czuba was a grandfather figure to Wadee and the family doesn’t understand what “fake news” Czuba may have heard about the war in Gaza that caused him to attack the boy and his mother. People need to understand Muslims before judging them, he said.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We can’t bring the war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country . . . we need that to stop.”
Odai Al Fayoumi, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Will County Prosecutor Christopher Koch exits the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Joseph Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - Wadee Alfayoumi's father, Oday Al Fayoume, seated right, and his uncle Mahmoud Yousef attend a vigil for Wadee at Prairie Activity and Recreation center in Plainfield, Ill., Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Joseph Czuba, 71, stands before Circuit Judge Dave Carlson for his arraignment at the Will County, Ill., courthouse, Oct. 30, 2023, in Joliet, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
