Malikah Shabazz, one of the daughters of civil rights activist Malcom X, was found dead inside her Brooklyn home on Monday night, according to reports. Shabazz, who was 56, was found at around 4.30 pm unresponsive in her home and was later declared dead, according to police.
The New York medical examiner was at the scene and as of now has determined her death not to be suspicious. However, an investigation has been launched and police is yet to give out further details related to her death. An autopsy will be conducted to determine Shabazz's exact cause of death.
Sudden Demise
Shabazz, who was the youngest of the six children of Malcom X and his wife Betty, was found by her daughter in her Brooklyn home. When officers arrived at her home, she was found dead. For the time being, no foul play is suspected but only an autopsy report will confirm the exact cause of death.
She was born seven months after her activist father was assassinated. Shabazz's death in a way is an end of an era its own right. Over the years, Shabazz had a number of brushes with the law.
In 2017, and her daughter were charged with stealing a rental truck. The pair was was arrested in southern Maryland and charged with animal cruelty after several injured pit bulls dogs were found subjected to "inhumane conditions" inside the stolen U-Haul truck they were driving.
Years earlier, in 2011, Shabazz pleaded guilty to stealing the identity of an elderly family friend in North Carolina. She ran up more than $55,000 in credit card charges.
Gone Silently
Malcolm X made headlines last week after two of the late civil activist's convicted killers — Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam — were exonerated. Shabazz's death comes less than a week after that. Aziz and Islam each spent some two decades in jail for the February 21, 1965 shooting of Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. Both were paroled in the 1980s.
However, last Thursday, Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Aziz and Islam, after prosecutors and the men's lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that they were not involved with the killing and determined that authorities withheld some of the evidence.
The investigation was launched by Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, following the broadcast of a six-part Netflix documentary last year which sparked renewed focus on the case. However, a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, were found guilty of Malcom X's murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison a month later.
Malcolm X was assassinated at a New York City ballroom in front of his family at the age of 39 in 1965. His wife died in 1997 at the age of 63 after suffering severe burns in a fire that was started by her 12-year-old grandson. The grandson was later sentenced to juvenile detention.
Shabazz's death now brings an end to the generation of Malcom X's immediate children.
