Grandson Of Malcolm X, Malcolm Shabazz, Has Died In Mexico

Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of slain civil rights activist Malcolm X, has died in Mexico. Malcolm Shabazz was convicted of manslaughter and arson in relation to the death of his grandmother when he was a child. The cause of Malcolm X's grandson's death has not been confirmed, though there are rumors he was killed during a robbery, NBC News reported.

Family friend Terrie Williams posted on his Facebook page to confirm Shabazz's death: "I'm confirming, per U.S. Embassy, on behalf of the family, the tragic death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X. Statement from family to come,"

Family members of Shabazz plan to head to Mexico to claim the body, The Journal News reported.

"I was told by the family that they're in the process of trying to get down to Mexico, so they can identify his remains and claim them," said family spiritual advisor Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem.

Abdur-Rashid said Shabazz was "a good young man, 28, still trying to figure out a lot of things."

He added Shabazz's death was tragic because of his potential: "He was definitely a leader.  I think his struggle was how to find a way out of his past. He made pilgrimage, he was reading, he was writing, he was talking to groups of young people. He was really right at the beginning I think of forging a very positive path of his own."

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has known Shabazz for several years. He told NBC News that Shabazz regularly spoke at Islamic centers around the country. He wanted to educate children of immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia about Malcolm X and the civil rights movement.

"He was a young man who was fighting his own past and trying to get himself together, and he was a very young and rising activist," Walid said. "By him striving to turn his life around, he was a huge influence on hundreds if not thousands of Muslims in our country."

Shabazz had a troubled childhood. At a young age, he was put into the custody of his grandmother and Malcom X's widow Betty Shabazz, due to his mother's legal and personal issues. In 1997, when he was 12, he set a fire in his grandmother's New York apartment that left her critically injured. She died a few months later from the burns.

Shabazz pleaded guilty and spent 18 months in juvenile detention for manslaughter and arson. He got out after four years, but two years later, when he was 18, was back in prison for an attempted robbery.