The Final Call

Killer of Malcolm X’s grandson sentenced but questions still remain about his death

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Malcolm Latif Shabazz stands beside a picture of his grandfather, former Nation of Islam Minister, Malcolm X.

The sentencing of the man accused of killing the son of Qubilah Shabazz appeared in a FaceBook message on Feb. 12 from Dr. Wilner Metelus, Presidente del Comite Ciudadano de Defensa de los Naturalizados y Afromexicanos (Committee on Citizens of the Defense of the Naturalized and AfroMexicans) in Mexico.

Mr. Metelus and his group do not consider the sentencing “a victory” because allegedly five people participated in the murder. “It is a step nothing more,” Mr. Metelus said.

According to media accounts, the 28-year-old was a victim of beating in a Mexico City bar on May 9, 2013.

“The circumstances surrounding his death are still not clear, and it is now February 2015,” said Sabrina Green, a human rights activist with the Baltimore-based Free the Move 9 Mumia.

New York magazine reported at the time of his death young Shabazz was with a colleague, and the pair had up to a $1,200 bar-tab as a result of a scam perpetrated on unsuspecting tourists, and after an argument two waiters confronted Mr. Shabazz. He was later found in a street in Plaza Girabaldi, a busy tourist spot.

In July 2013, Mr. Metelus’ organization staged a hunger strike in front of the headquarters of the Federal District of Mexico City’s Governor’s Palace demanding that authorities move forward in their investigation of Mr. Shabazz’s death. One thousand heavily armed police officers forcibly removed the protestors who were in day eight of their hunger strike.

Ms. Green laments that there has not been any such protest in the U.S. “I think people are taking the position that his murder happened far away and seemingly in the far distant past,” she said.

On Feb. 24, Mr. Shabazz’s aunt, Ilyashah Shabazz, said on Democracy Now that her nephew had gone to Mexico “invited under the premise that the African Mexicans were being discriminated and treated unfairly and that they needed him to talk to them. And so, he went thinking that he was going to speak to these people, and they ended up killing him.”

According to other sources, Mr. Shabazz had traveled to Mexico to stand with Mexican construction workers who had been deported because of their activism in Oakland. “That is why it is important to get the truth from the Mexican authorities,” said Ms. Green.

In 2014, Ms. Green presented the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., with questions concerning her request for information about the investigation into Mr. Shabazz’s death. She has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. State Department. Neither entity has responded, she said. Requests for comment from the State Department by The Final Call went unanswered.

Zayid Muhammad, press officer for the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, said, “Little Malcolm’s case was never unfortunately seriously on the radar here .... however, we did organize some real responses to his situation, including a protest rally we did at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.”

“There are some real serious questions about what happened to him, and who he was with that still need to be answered,” Mr. Muhammad added.