SENSELESS

Man Killed Black Teen Because Rap Music Made Him Feel ‘Unsafe’

Michael Paul Adams, who was released from prison two days before the attack, told police that rap fans are a threat to the community.

An Arizona man has admitted to killing a black teen because the 17-year-old was listening to rap music and it made him feel “unsafe,” according to police. Michael Paul Adams, 27, admitted stabbing the teenager who has been identified in some reports as Elijah Al-Amin. The suspect said he felt threatened by the music—not anything the teenager was doing—and decided to be “proactive rather than reactive,” police records said. Adams is also quoted as saying people who listen to rap music are a threat to him and the community, and that he’s been attacked by rap fans before. Adams used a pocketknife to stab the teen and slit his throat inside a convenience store. Al-Amin died at a hospital last Thursday. Adams had just been released from the Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma on Tuesday. He’s now been booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of first-degree premeditated murder.