Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and attorneys Paul Napoli and Ray Hamlin will hold a press conference on Feb.20 to allegedly present new evidence in the assassination of renowned civil rights leader Malcolm X.
According to a post on Crump’s Twitter account, the lawyer will present a letter from a former undercover police officer who implicated the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI in Malcolm X’s death.
MEDIA ALERT: @AttorneyCrump & Reggie Wood to hold news conference on 2/20 at 12:30 ET to deliver new evidence regarding the assassination of Malcolm X to his daughters & the Manhattan DA following a deathbed declaration from Ray Wood, an undercover police officer at the time. pic.twitter.com/xadqNs5mlR
— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) February 19, 2021
“MEDIA ALERT: @AttorneyCrump & Reggie Wood to hold a news conference on 2/20 at 12:30 ET to deliver new evidence regarding the assassination of Malcolm X to his daughters & the Manhattan DA following a deathbed declaration from Ray Wood, an undercover police officer at the time,” the tweet read.
Reggie Woods will reveal the shocking letter from the Shabazz Center one day before the 56th anniversary of the beloved leader’s murder. Reggie, who is related to Ray, is slated to read the letter aloud and then hand it off to Malcolm X’s daughters- Qubiliah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz and Gamilah Shabazz. He is the executor of the former officer’s estate.
Crump’s statement described Ray Wood’s involvement in the former Nation of Islam’s leader’s death.
“Without any training, Wood’s job was to infiltrate civil rights organizations and encourage leaders and members to commit felonious acts,” he wrote. “He was also tasked with ensuring that Malcolm X’s security detail was arrested days prior to the assassination, guaranteeing Malcolm X didn’t have door security while at the Audubon Ballroom, where he was killed on Feb. 21, 1965.”
According to CORE NYC, Wood was a special unit participant inside the NYPD known as the Bureau of Special Services (BOSS)– also known as the “Red Squad.” As a Black undercover police officer, Wood’s job was to gather information on Black leaders and infiltrate organizations that were considered to be radical at the time. He goaded CORE leaders and the Black Liberation Movement (BLM) to commit illegal and violent “militant” actions by posing as a 27-year-old college graduate and law student.
Last February, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance reopened the investigation into Malcolm X’s murder at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights on Feb. 21, 1965, according to the Richmond Free Press.
“District Attorney Vance has met with representatives from the Innocence Project and associated counsel regarding this matter. He has determined that the district attorney’s office will begin a preliminary review of the matter, which will inform the office regarding what further investigative steps may be undertaken. District Attorney Vance has assigned Senior Trial Counsel Peter Casolaro and Conviction Integrity Deputy Chief Charles King to lead this preliminary review.”
The reconsideration came after Netflix’s wildly successful documentary “Who Killed Malcolm X?”
In the six-part series, historian, journalist and activist Abdur-Rahman Muhammad explained that the two men who were imprisoned for Malcolm X’s murder couldn’t have been at the scene of the crime.
The Innocence Project is now looking to bring justice to Muhammad A. Aziz and the estate of Khalil Islam.
The civil rights icon’s youngest daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, spoke about her father’s legacy.
“It is important for our children and our children’s children to be the beneficiaries of Malcolm,” she told PIX 11.
This article was written Keka Araújo for Black Enterprise.
