Malikah Shabazz, Malcolm X youngest daughter by his wife Betty Shabazz, was found dead at home in Brooklyn on Monday, the police said. Shabazz was found by her 23 year old daughter, unresponsive in her living room floor. CBS New York reports that her daughter found her unconscious at about 5 p.m., according to police. She lives with her in the apartment in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, the police said.
According to reports there were no suspicious causes. However, A high-ranking police official said accidental food poisoning may have played a role.
Ms. Shabazz was found dead four days after a judge exonerated two men who were convicted in 1966 of assassinating Malcolm X the year before. Judge Ellen Biben’s decision followed a two-year investigation by Manhattan’s district attorney that determined Muhammad A. Aziz, 83, and the late Khalil Islam were “wrongfully convicted.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, also stated that there were no signs of foul play. A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner said the office was conducting tests to determine the cause of death.
The Rev. Bernice A. King, the youngest child of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, said she was “deeply saddened” by Malikah’s death. “Be at peace, Malikah,” she wrote in a message on Twitter.
Lori Anne Douglass, who was appointed to represent Ms. Shabazz in the litigation over her mother’s estate, remembered her as smart and full of life.
“She loved her family, missed her mother terribly, missed her father terribly, and like any other young person that loses their parents, had a difficult time dealing with that,” she said.
A Manhattan judge dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that undermined the case against them.
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