Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Grandson of Malcolm X Beaten to Death in Mexico City

The grandson of murdered U.S. civil rights leader Malcolm X, Malcolm Shabazz, who was convicted as a child for a fire that killed his grandmother, has died in Mexico City after an apparent beating.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office said a murder investigation was under way. Shabazz, 29, died early on Thursday morning after he was taken to a hospital with a range of injuries.

The ambulance picked up Shabazz in Mexico City’s run-down Plaza Garibaldi, home to Mariachi bands, strip clubs and dive bars and notorious for petty crime.

“The deceased was in a place of entertainment, drinking beers, according to a companion,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “He exhibited various injuries, apparently from blows.”

The U.S. State Department’s consular affairs section in Washington said only that it was aware a U.S. citizen had died in Mexico City, but gave no further details.

“We have been in contact with family members, and at their request we have no further comment at this time,” it said in an email to Reuters.

When Malcolm Shabazz was 12 he was involved in a fire that resulted in the death of his grandmother Betty Shabazz. He was convicted of manslaughter and arson and went to juvenile detention.

Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X – born Malcolm Little, and also known by his Muslim name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz – was a black Muslim firebrand who critics said stirred racist and anti-U.S. sentiment. He was shot to death in 1965 at a speaking engagement in New York and three men were convicted of the murder.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.