What Happened To Qaadir Malik And Naazir Rahim Lewis? That’s the question that’s being asked after the bodies of two Black twin brothers were discovered on a Georgia mountain with fatal bullet wounds.
Source: GoFundMe / GoFundMe
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a statement published Sunday that “the preliminary investigation reveals the deaths to be a murder-suicide.” However, as in many cases where young Black people die under mysterious circumstances — and the ruling that they died by suicide seems to come all too soon and conveniently — the victims’ family members aren’t buying it.
According to NBC News, the 19-year-olds were found by hikers at the summit of Bell Mountain in Hiawassee, Ga., on March 8. Curiously, they were both supposed to be in Boston the day before their bodies were discovered.
From NBC:
The pair, from Lawrenceville, Georgia, had planned to travel to Boston to see friends and were due to fly at 7 a.m. on March 7. Authorities say they never made the flight, and their bodies were found 90 miles away from their home in an area their family says they had never visited.
The twins’ family have said the police explanation makes no sense, arguing the boys were close and had no history of conflict.
“We want answers, we want to know exactly what happened to the twins,” Samira Brawner, an aunt, told WXIA.
The family said they were bewildered as to why the pair ended up on an unfamiliar mountain that is popular with hikers and tourists and not far from the North Carolina state line. The twin’s plane tickets were still in their wallets.
“How did they end up out in the mountains? They don’t hike out there, they’ve never been out there,” Brawner said. “They don’t know anything about Hiawassee, Georgia. They never even heard of Bell Mountain, so how did they end up right there?”
“They love each other,” he said. “They’re like inseparable. I couldn’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never seen them get into a fistfight before.”
The GBI said in its statement that the autopsies on the twins had been completed, but the medical examiner’s official ruling has not been released because further forensic testing is needed — which probably should have given the bureau pause before publicly indicating that their cause of death was a murder-suicide.
“We knew right away that wasn’t true,” Samira said.
Yasmine Brawner, another aunt who launched a
GoFundMe page to raise funds for funeral expenses for the twins, also expressed doubt that the two brothers killed each other or themselves.
“They had a huge support system. We know them. They wouldn’t do anything like this. To say they did this to each other? No. Something happened in those mountains, and we want answers,” she said.
“In recent new reports, it was claimed that they took their own lives,” Yasmine also wrote on the GoFundMe page. “My nephews wouldn’t do this! They came from a family of love, and twins wanted so much for their future, they had dreams of starting their very own clothing line.”
From Sandra Bland to Dennoriss Richardson, when Black people die under mysterious, often inexplicable circumstances, and the public, including their family members, are told they committed suicide and nothing more, it’s unreasonable to expect us to simply accept it. Indeed, we all want and should demand answers until we’re satisfied the truth has come to light. We know far too much about America to think any other way.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
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