By Kelly McLaughlin From Business Insider

• Michael Paul Adams was arrested and charged with killing a 17-year-old boy at a Circle K in Peoria, Arizona on Thursday.
• Multiple news outlets and social media posts named the victim as Elijah Al-Amin from Glendale, Arizona.
• Adams told police that Elijah did not provoke the attack, and that he killed the teen because he was listening to rap music and he wanted to be “proactive rather than reactive.”
• People on social media have called on the Department of Justice to investigate Elijah’s death as a hate crime.

An Arizona man charged with killing a 17-year-old boy in Arizona reportedly told police he stabbed the teen because his rap music made him feel “unsafe.”

Michael Paul Adams, 27, admitted to police that he stabbed a 17-year-old boy at a Circle K in Peoria, Arizona, early Thursday morning, according to AZ Central.

Witnesses told police that Adams walked up behind the teen, grabbed him and stabbed him in the neck, according to a probably cause statement seen by AZFamily.com.

Multiple news outlets and social media posts named the victim as Elijah Al-Amin from Glendale.

Adams told police that Elijah did not provoke the attack.

According to court documents obtained by AZ Central, Adams told police that Elijah did not provoke the attack, and that he killed the teen because he was listening to rap music and he wanted to be “proactive rather than reactive.”

He reportedly told police that rap music makes him feel “unsafe” because he had been attacked by people who listen to rap music in the past.

“Adams stated rap music makes him feel unsafe, because in the past he has been attacked by people (Blacks, Hispanics, and Native American) who listen to rap music. Adams further stated, people who listen to rap music are a threat to him and the community,” a police report said, according to CNN.

Peoria Police said in a statement on Facebook that they took Adams into custody hours after the incident. He is being held at Maricopa County jail on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder.

In a court appearance, Adams’s lawyer, Jacie Cotterell, said his client has a mental illness and does not belong in jail.

Adams had been released from jail just two days before the alleged attack. He had just completed a 13-month sentence for aggravated assault, according to Yahoo News.

“They released him to the streets with no medication, no meds, with no way to care for himself,” she said. “It’s too easy as a society to shake our head and say well, they committed a crime, it’s too bad, we have jails for that, when really, what they need is treatment. They need a bed instead of a cell.”

People on social media want the case investigated as a hate crime.

People on social media have criticized Cotterell’s defense using the hashtag “JusticeForElijah,” calling on the Department of Justice to investigate Elijah’s death as a hate crime.

Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of the Arizona Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), also called for Elijah’s death to be investigated.

“When you talk about an individual attacked by their type of music …this is very radicalized language that’s being used. There is definitely a hate component to the crime,” Siddiqi told AZ Central. “Our first thoughts are we are horrified of the story as well as it’s an outright tragedy.”

Friends and family said a prayer for Al-Amin at the Islamic Community Center in Tempe, Arizona, on Monday.

Read the original article on INSIDER.
Copyright 2019

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