Grandson of Malcolm X Beaten to Death in Mexico City
Bad Child: Malcolm Shabazz as he appeared in 1997 during his trial for setting a fire that killed his grandmother, Betty Shabazz.
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.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
