Muslim groups are calling for federal and investigations into what police says is the intentional hit and run death of a Kansas City teen outside the Somali Center at Admiral and Paseo.
Police say a man in an SUV intentionally struck the teen while he was getting into a car, nearly severing his legs. The teen died at the hospital.
Police say a 30-year-old suspect was arrested after he tried to flee on foot.
Zulfiqar Malik is a board member with the Heartland Muslim Council. He says the group is calling for federal law enforcement to investigate this as a hate crime.
Malik says the suspect is someone known to the Somali community. He says members of that community report the suspect threatened them at with a gun and was seen vandalizing their mosque with anti-Muslim graffiti.
The Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also issued a news release calling for a federal investigation.
An FBI spokeswoman told the Kansas City Star they’ve opened the case “as a civil rights investigation into a potential hate crimes violation.”
Police have not release the identities of the victim and the suspect.
