Malcolm X, the civil rights leader who later transformed into a global activist, was assassinated in 1965 just as his messages for human rights began to resonate with the wider public. The family of Malcolm X has filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the United States government, alleging its involvement in his passing.
As reported late last week by ABC News, civil rights attorney Ben Crump was flanked by members of Malcolm X’s family and announced the $100 million lawsuit while addressing a media gathering in New York where the leader was gunned down.
According to Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), said that the family and their legal team have uncovered damning evidence that connects the NYPD and FBI worked in concert to kill her father.
“We fought primarily for our mother, who was here,” Ms. Shabazz said referencing the late Betty Shabazz while speaking at the site of the former Audubon Ballroom. “My mother was pregnant when she came here to see her husband speak, someone who she just admired totally and to witness this horrific assassination of her husband.”
Crump added in his statements to the press that the lawsuit targets an alleged scheme from the authorities to keep the truth of X’s death under wraps. In the lawsuit, a witness by the name of Mustafa Hassan claims that when he and others tried to stop the individuals who carried out the assassination, NYPD officers intervened to allegedly help the suspects escape. Hassan was reportedly never questioned by investigators on the scene despite him giving an account of the incident.
Further, the family’s legal team says it has two affidavits from a pair of X’s bodyguards who claim they were jailed by an undercover NYPD officer one week before the slaying was carried out and were kept from X’s side to guarantee the job would be done.
The FBI and NYPD have declined to comment on the lawsuit according to the outlet.
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Photo: Getty