A Muslim activist group has called for an FBI investigation of a Seattle-area Muslim teen’s death by hanging after the medical examiner changed the cause of death from suicide to undetermined.
The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked for the federal investigation of 18-year-old Ben Keita’s death by hanging in a wooded area near Lake Stevens. The body was discovered in January, but Keita had disappeared in November.
Keita’s family disagreed with the initial ruling of suicide, saying Keita was “a happy young man” with no history of anxiety or depression, Fox News said.
The medical examiner decided to change the manner of death after discovering the rope used to hang Keita was tied 50 feet up in the tree and that a search of the same area a few weeks earlier — but after he went missing — didn’t turn up the body, according to KIRO 7.
The FBI said it would review the case to decide whether to open an investigation. The Seattle office of the FBI said in a statement it “is communicating with our police partners,” KIRO reported. “We are aware of the circumstances of the individual’s death and will review them with consideration of federal law.”
"We are careful not to rush to judgement," the Rev. Kele Brown of Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle told KIRO. "Historically lynchings were often deemed quickly as suicide without the benefit of thorough inquiry."
“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,” Washington CAIR Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari told the news station.
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