A man in Arizona is currently in police custody for stabbing a black teenager to death for playing rap music too loud.
The dead teen has been identified as 17-year-old Elijah Alamin while 27-year-old Michael Adams is currently in police custody for murder. Activists have since launched the #JusticeForElijah social media campaign to help spread the story and get justice for the slain teenager, whose family is currently making preparations for his funeral. According to AZCentral, Adams admitted that he stabbed the teenager approximately 1:42 a.m. last week Thursday.
The fatal incident took placed in a Circle K parking lot. The white male told police that Elijah was playing rap music too loud, and he felt threatened by that. According to court records, Adams used a pocket knife to stab the teen in his back before slitting his throat. The 27-year-old man had only been released from the Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma on Tuesday, a few days before the fatal stabbing.
Police officers have since obtained surveillance footage from the convenience store showing Adams following the teen inside the store before lunging at him, the record records revealed. The teenager ran from the store but ended up collapsing near a gas pump. Responding officers performed CPR, but the teenager later died when taken to a local hospital.
Adams was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, but the incident sparked widespread outraged across the country. The #JusticeForElijah hashtag has since been launched with people voicing their support and their concerns that the justice system might let Adams off too easy.
Some people on Twitter are calling the crime a hate crime.
The man who murdered Elijah El Amin committed an act of anti-black terrorism. He killed a teenager b/c he claimed the music the kid was listening to made him feel "unsafe." He is a violent racist and don't you dare let him use mental illness as justification
— ?Elle ?Gato? Maruska ? (@ellle_em) July 8, 2019
Michael Adams walked up to a Black teen, Elijah Al-Amin, as he stood at the soda machine and slit his throat b/c he felt threatened by the music he listened to in his car.
This murder is a hate crime that MUST be investigated by DOJ. #JusticeForElijah https://t.co/wt5zPcCGml
— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) July 8, 2019
A white supremacist w/a history of violence murdered 17-year-old Elijah El Amin by slitting his throat?
The murderer admitted he killed Elijah b/c Elijah “played rap music.”
Clearly a hate crime yet that fact is ignored altogether?#JusticeForElijah pic.twitter.com/9u7K7Gx1Cg
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) July 8, 2019
This poor child. The criminal justice system kills mentally ill people when they're brown or black. But they set Adams on his community, knowing he was a danger *specifically to black people* bc his illness exacerbated his racism. Elijah's poor family. #JusticeForElijah https://t.co/xBaLkFxphN
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) July 8, 2019
Every time a Black man kills he's a thug. Every time a White man kills he's 'mentally ill'. STOP! This man slit a young boys throat over nothing but bigotry! These parents lost their little boy! This is who we are! Send him away for life!#JusticeForElijah
— Michelle Guido (@heyyguido) July 8, 2019
