Melina Abdullah is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and co-director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, and former chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She was among the original organizers who convened to form Black Lives Matter in 2013 and has hosted radio programs on KPFK and KBLA.
We have documented 1 statement by Melina Abdullah, in 1 case. Each statement below gives the quotation, its original source and a link to the full case.
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Role at the time: co-founder, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles
Condemned
Statement summary
Black Lives Matter LA co-founder Melina Abdullah said the shooting would have led to an arrest if the shooter had not been a federal agent, and rejected the idea that Porter's celebratory gunfire justified killing him.
“Were this anyone else, there would've been an arrest. You don't get to just murder people because you don't like what they're doing or how they're celebrating.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Northridge community holds candlelight vigil for man fatally shot by DHS agent on New Year's Eve · CBS News Los AngelesCBS News Los Angeles, Jan. 5, 2026
Why we used this label
Abdullah rejects the premise that the agent's account justifies the killing, characterizing it instead as an unjustified killing that has escaped the accountability an ordinary shooter would face, which is a direct condemnation of the shooting rather than a defense of it or of a critic's remedy alone.
An off-duty ICE agent, later identified in court filings as Brian Palacios, fatally shot Keith Porter Jr. in Northridge on New Year's Eve. DHS says Porter aimed a rifle and fired; his family says he was firing celebratory shots skyward.
