Malcolm Shabazz Killed in Mexico City
The grandson of famed leader Malcolm X traveled to Mexico’s capital city to meet recently deported friend
Malcolm Shabazz, also known as El Hajj Malcolm El Shabazz, died early Thursday morning of blunt-force trauma to the head, after reportedly being beaten and left outside a bar near Garibaldi Plaza in Mexico City. Shabazz was 28 years old.
Mr. Shabazz had traveled by bus from Tijuana to Mexico City earlier in the week with the mother of a recently deported friend and activist, Miguel Suárez.
Suárez, who owned and operated a construction company in San Jose, California, was also a leader of an organization named RUMEC, an acronym for Revolutionary United Mexicans in Combat. Photos from RUMEC’s Facebook page show several images of Malcolm Shabazz speaking at an event at their offices in January.
“He’s a supporter of our organization,” RUMEC member Juan Ruiz told Talking Points Memo. “He went to Mexico to meet with Miguel.”
According to an interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Suárez states that he and Mr. Shabazz were lured to a bar across from Garibaldi Plaza, a popular tourist site known for its mariachis and as a nighttime red light district, Wednesday night by a young woman who spoke to Malcolm in English.
“We were dancing with the girls and drinking,” Suárez told the AP. This is where it seems things turned bad.
The bar owner was demanding the pair pay $1,200 USD for music, drinks and the young woman’s company when “a short dude came with a gun,” said Suárez. “We pretty much got hassled.”
Suárez reports he was taken by the man with the gun to another room while Shabazz stayed in the hall. He was able escape, but when he retuned minutes later, Shabazz was laying severely injured on the ground outside the bar.
“He was in shock. His face was messed up,” said Suárez. “He was alive.”
Suárez says he called police and took Shabazz to a nearby hospital, however, he died hours later from his injuries.
As of Friday night, Shabazz family members and an Islamic imam where traveling to Mexico City to claim Malcolm’s remains.
Shabazz, the grandson of famed leader Malcolm X, recently wrote in his personal blog that he was being harassed by the FBI soon after accepting an invitation to travel to Iran to speak about Hollywood’s depiction of Muslims.
Photo: Juan Ruiz and Miguel Suárez stand on either side of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X. Credit: SFBayView.
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