The Washington state chapter of Council on the American-Islamic Relations is calling for the FBI to investigate the death of a Muslim teenager who was discovered hanging from a tree. The incident, which the medical examiner initially ruled as suicide, involves 18-year-old Ben Keita, whose body was discovered in a wooded area of the Lake Stevens in January. He had vanished in the November.
Father Ibrahima Keita told TO Q13 Fox that, "Ben was a happy young man.” He also said that his son had no history of depression or anxiety. However, the medical examiner later changed the cause of death as undetermined. According to KIRO, two reasons were cited. The rope used to hang the teen was tied up 50 feet high in the tree, and a search of the area just few weeks earlier had not turned up anything.
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According to the Washington CAIR, Keita was found hanging in an area which was searched at least twice by the police before his body was finally discovered.
The incident comes in the midst of what civil rights advocates and also religious communities are calling as a wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate crimes. Dozens of the Jewish Community Centers have been hit with bomb threats over the last two months; scores of the headstones were overturned at Jewish cemetaries in St. Louis and Philadelphia; a member of the Pittsburgh's Somali Bantu community is in critical condition after being severely beaten on Tuesday;
Lake Stevens police told to Q13 News that its investigation into Keita’s death remains open pending lab results.
The Washington CAIR executive director Arsalan Bukhari told to KIRO that, “we just want to make sure that the expertise, the experience and the human resources of the FBI are brought to make sure everything is comprehensively investigated, no stone is left unturned.”
"We are aware of circumstances of the individual’s death and will review them with consideration of federal law. If warranted, we may conduct further investigation. A review does not necessarily result in the opening of an investigation." the statement read, reported by the NY Daily News.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
