Long Beach police killed unarmed 20-year-old Muslim college student Feras Morad on the night of 27 May. Witnesses say he was 20 feet from the officers and walking away when they shot him. No one informed Morad’s family.

NBC Los Angeles investigated the killing. The journalists interviewed the young man’s grieving father, who wept in despair.

Morad was at a party with friends from his school’s debate team when he took psychedelic mushrooms. He had a bad reaction to the drug and, while hallucinating, injured himself after he jumped through the window on the second floor of a building.

Worried for their friend, who cut himself on the glass and was bleeding, Morad’s friends called the police. The cops subsequently killed him.

Cops tased and beat Morad, yet claimed the slight young man still “threatened” them. Witnesses dispute this, saying Morad was in fact not a threat.

When a cop pulled out his gun, Morad’s friends shouted “Don’t shoot! He’s not armed!” The police shot and killed the young man anyway.

Friends who witnessed the killing say Morad, who did not have his glasses on at the time of the murder and could barely see, was in fact walking away from the police when they shot him. Witnesses also maintain that Morad was 20 feet away when the cops opened fire.

Adding insult to injury, after killing Morad, neither the police, nor the hospital to which he was taken, nor the LA county coroner’s office called to tell his family.

Morad’s 16-year-old sister says she only learned about the police killing of her brother through a friend’s Facebook status.

Not all networks did as good of a job reporting the story as NBC. In its coverage, in a masterful use of euphemism, ABC reported that “an officer-involved shooting ensued.” The “objective” corporate media is incapable of writing “the cop shot him.”

“Justice For Feras Morad”

I spoke with students in LA who knew Morad. They say he was a great student, committed debate team member, and volunteer with the Muslim civil rights organization the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Morad had a 3.9 GPA and was a nationally ranked debater.

Supporters of Morad created Facebook and Twitter pages demanding “Justice For Feras Morad.”

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