A Niles man was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of hate crime for defacing signage, a park bench, and other property on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston with swastikas and other Nazi symbols earlier this year, according to officials.
Shahid Hussain’s background includes a conviction for a series of antisemitic hate crimes on Chicago’s North Side in 2022, which explains the comparatively harsh sentence.
In the most recent case, authorities claim surveillance video shows Hussain entering the Northwestern campus on January 30 and scribbling swastikas and other Nazi symbols on various signs and university property. The footage also shows him raising his arm in the Nazi salute.
Northwestern University police officers identified Hussain from surveillance film based on previous problems at the university. Prosecutors said Evanston and Northwestern police tracked him out and arrested him approximately two weeks later. Prosecutors say Hussain acknowledged to defacing the property with Nazi insignia.
On Thursday, Cook County Judge Paul Pavlus condemned Hussain. Under Illinois’ good-behavior requirements, the sentence will be reduced by half.
“Acts of hate and intimidation have no place in our communities,” State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke declared. “This guilty plea and prison sentence demonstrate that we will hold individuals accountable for crimes intended to intimidate and spread hate in our communities.”
Hussain’s earlier hate crime conviction resulted from a series of antisemitic vandalism crimes involving a synagogue and Jewish school on the North Side, as previously reported by CWBChicago. According to authorities, Hussain once stood outside Yeshivas Meor Hatorah of Chicago, 3635 West Devon Avenue, and shouted about Jews while damaging lights, gesturing as if he were shooting a shotgun and gave a Nazi-like salute. Hussain was caught on video smashing other lights in the vicinity while wearing a red hat and cape, both of which he allegedly donned in previous incidents.
Hussain apparently acknowledged responsibility for the incidents on Facebook, including photos of himself making a Nazi salute while sporting an Adolf Hitler-style mustache.
In another occasion, a witness saw Hussain talking loudly about the start time of Shabbat as he strolled outside Congregation KINS of West Rogers Park, 2800 West North Shore Avenue, prosecutors claimed. She acquired footage of a man in a cloak and red hat walking into a vestibule, where another camera caught him breaking the glass.
Later, a vehicle contacted 911 after allegedly seeing Hussain paint swastikas on trailers near Jewish institutions in the 2900 block of West Devon Avenue. These incidents were also documented on video.
Hussain was arrested near the 6300 block of North Albany Avenue after a 911 caller reported seeing a man talking about bombings and burning synagogues, according to CPD records.
Hussain was on parole for forgery and was being monitored for stalking and breaking a no-contact order when the 2022 hate crimes occurred. He pled guilty in January 2023 to five counts of hate crime against a synagogue and two acts of institutional destruction. He received a three-year sentence for each offense, to be served concurrently, with the sentences reduced by half under the state’s good-behavior provisions.
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