The grandson of the revered revolutionary Malcolm X was murdered in Mexico on Thursday, May 9, allegedly the victim of a violently robbery.
Malcolm Shabazz, 30, was reportedly thrown off a building after being robbed in Tijuana, a popular but sometimes dangerous tourist city just south of San Diego on the other side of the Mexican border, and Shabazz sustained terminal injuries. Shabazz is the second-generation offspring of the venerated ’60s era civil rights icon Malcolm X, one of the most electrifying speakers this nation has ever produced, who later changed his name to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 following his split from the Nation of Islam.
Shabazz’s death comes just 10 days before the annual celebration of Malcolm X’s birthday (May 19, 1925) that takes place in many urban area and among black college students nationwide.
Much like his larger-than-life grandfather, Shabazz also emerged from a criminal past to pursue higher goals. In the 1990s, Shabazz was found guilty of starting a fire in New York that killed his grandmother and Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, and was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention for 18 months. His sentence was extended and he wound up imprisoned for four years. He later told the Amsterdam News — a favorite paper of Malcolm X during his heyday — that he did not start that fire. He was pursuing his criminal justice degree at John Jay College at the time of his death.
As most know, Shabazz’s famous grandfather also met a violent demise during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, succumbing to a hail of gunfire inside the Audobahn Ballroom in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan on Feb. 21, 1965.
Many fans and faithful followers of Malcolm X took to social media to offer their condolences for the grandson Malcolm Shabazz. Take a look at a sampling below.
damn. and he knew this was coming. straight assassination.m.amsterdamnews.com/mobile/news/na…
— ms. spottieottie (@ohsowrite) May 9, 2013
