By Leshi Adebayo
Malikah Shabazz, one of the daughters of slain Black civil rights activist, Malcolm X, has been found dead.
According to the New York Police Department, Shabazz, 56, was found unconscious in her Brooklyn apartment on Monday, and afterwards was declared dead.
In an interview with two officials, NBC News reported that the city’s medical examiner arrived the scene, and said that the death was in no way suspicious.
Malikah Shabazz’s death comes around 57 years after Malcolm X’s killing and at the same time when two of those convicted over the civil rights leader’s death are expected to be exonerated.
Shabazz was one of the slain civil rights activist and his wife Betty Shabazz’s 6 children.
In 1975, Malcolm X was assassinated inside a New York City ballroom in the presence of his family at the age of 39. Years later, his wife died in 1997 at the age of 63 from severe burns in a fire that was ignited by her 12-year-old grandson who was later sentenced to juvenile detention.
Meanwhile, Bernice King, daughter of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, has offered her condolences for the death of Shabazz, saying she was “deeply saddened”.
She wrote on Twitter, “My heart goes out to her family, the descendants of Dr Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X,” she wrote on Twitter. She noted that Shabazz’s mother was pregnant with Malikah and her twin sister, Malaak, when Malcom X was assassinated. Be at peace, Malikah.”
Before her death, Shabazz was reported to have had run-ins with the law enforcement for years on charges including larceny, forgery and identity theft.
