Najee Ali, director of Los Angeles-based activist group Project Islamic HOPE, released a statement Tuesday congratulating the Los Angeles police department for arresting Pedro Espinoza, an alleged Latino gang member accused of killing a 17-year-old African American football star in a drive by shooting.
Espinoza, a 19-year-old suspected member of the 18th Street gang, was charged yesterday with capital murder in the shooting death of Jamiel Shaw Jr., just hours before the start of his funeral at West Angeles Church of God in Christ.
According to CNN, Jamiel Shaw was just three doors from his house on March 2 – attempting to get home before dark, as his father had instructed him to do – when gang members pulled up in a car and asked him if he was in a gang.
Shaw didn't even have time to tell them "no." He was shot down before he could answer, police said.
"We're calling for the L.A. District Attorneys office to file hate crime charges if the investigation leads to any racial motive for Shaw's murder," Ali said in a statement.
As previously reported, Project Islamic HOPE is holding a Rally Against Hate Crimes from noon to 1 p.m. Friday (March 14) outside of the Justice Department (300 S. Spring St.) downtown.
"The recent murders of African Americans in L.A County by Latino gang members are racially motivated and are hate crimes," says Ali. "We want a federal and state task force assigned to the Mexican Mafia to help stop their campaign of racial terrorism and ethnic cleansing of African Americans in L.A. County."
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