FBI to Review Case of Black Muslim Boy Found Hanging From Tree

On Thursday, the FBI office in Seattle, Washington, said they would review the case of 18-year-old Ben Keita, who was found hanging from a tree near his Lake Stevens home on Jan. 9, after having been missing since late November.

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Keita's death had originally been ruled a suicide, but after repeated calls from his family to review the case the local medical examiner changed the cause of death to "undetermined."

In changing the ruling the examiner noted that Keita had no history of depression or suicidal ideation, that the rope which asphyxiated him was strung unusually high — almost 50 feet off the ground — and that the area where his body was discovered had been recently searched by a canine unit before his body was discovered.

According to the examiner "undetermined" means that "two competing, equally likely manners (of death) are present."

The announcement of the FBI review — which they insisted in a statement did not mean they were taking over the case or conducting a full investigation — came after calls from Keita's family and the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for the FBI to investigate the case.

"We want to make sure that the expertise, the experience, and the human resources of the FBI are brought in to make sure that everything is comprehensively investigated, no stone is left unturned and we really want to get answers about what may have happened," Arsalan Bukhari, a spokesperson for CAIR-Washington, said during a press conference on Tuesday.

In the same press conference Rev. Kele Brown, of Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church, said that it while it was important not to rush to judgment, "Historically, lynchings were often deemed quickly as suicides without the benefit of thorough inquiry."

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As news of Keita's death spread both nationally and internationally, the local Lake Stevens Police Department issued a 2-page statement on Thursday afternoon insisting that the investigation into Keita's death was ongoing and that the department had already consulted with almost 12 other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

In the press conference on Tuesday Keita's father, Ibrahima Keita, said "Ben was a happy young man," who was planning to graduate this year and dreamt "of becoming a medical doctor and work as a medical examiner."

"We believe that somewhere, someone must know something about this case and we urge people to come forward and contact the police," he concluded.

News of the FBI review comes as the U.S. has witnessed a massive spike in hate crimes in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, who came to power with the endorsements of the Klu Klux Klan and other hate groups.

The FBI itself reported that anti-Muslim hate crimes grew by 67 percent in the year after Donald Trump launched his bid for the presidency on an explicitly Islamophobic platform.