A man who claims to have witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X contends law enforcement was involved in the 1965 killing.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at a Tuesday press conference that reopening an investigation into the crime was warranted, Gothamist reported.
"The government was involved in the conspiracy to kill Malcolm X," Crump claimed at the Audubon Ballroom on West 165th Street in Manhattan, where the killing took place.
In a court affidavit that was released to the public, Mustafa Hassan, 84, said he was a member of the Organization of African American Unity, a group formed by Malcolm X in 1964, and was part of the security detail on the day of the fatal shooting, Gothamist reported.
Hassan said that after a "series of gunshots" at the Audubon Ballroom, he encountered a man "running down the aisle towards the exit where I had been posted with a gun in his hand."
Hassan claimed he knocked down the man, Talmadge X. Hayer, who was eventually convicted of the killing, along with two other men.
Hassan said he heard one police officer at the time ask another, "Is he one of ours?" that made him think the assassin was an informant.
For decades, supporters of Malcolm X have contended that the government played a role in his death.
The NYPD did not respond to questions about the claims made by Hassan. Last year, the city agreed to a $36 million payout after the exoneration of two men who were wrongfully convicted in the murder, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009.
Hayer, also known as Thomas Hagen, was paroled in 2010.
Malcolm X's family is suing the NYPD and federal law enforcement agencies for allegedly concealing evidence related to the assassination.
Crump said he hopes Hassan's revelations will pressure the Biden administration and the Department of Justice to re-open the investigation into the killing and law enforcement's possible role.