On Thursday, Malcolm X's grandson Malcolm Shabazz was killed in Mexico. As more details regarding his death emerge, a friend claims he was beaten to death over a $1,200 tab. Shabazz, 28, was in Mexico to visit Miguel Suarez, the deported labor activist. The Associated Press says the two were together when Shabazz died outside of a bar in downtown Mexico.
According to Suarez, the bar's owner ordered them to pay a $1,200 tab, leading to a fight. Suarez found Shabazz outside of the bar and took him to the hospital where he later died of blunt force trauma.
Shabazz led a short, yet tumultuous life. He plead guilty to manslaughter for setting the blaze that killed his grandmother, Betty Shabazz. He was just 12-years-old at the time. Shabazz, who struggled to escape the immense shadow left by his grandfather, also experienced trouble with the law in subsequent years.
Activist Randy Shorttold the New York Times: “He wanted to be himself, but in connection with what his grandfather had been."
[via Gothamist, New York Times and Associated Press]
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