The death of an Iraqi immigrant in San Diego on Saturday, an apparent victim of a hate crime, provoked a wave of outraged comments from bloggers who compared the killing to the shooting of an unarmed Florida teenager last month. The woman, Shaima Alawadi, died three days after her daughter discovered her body in a pool of blood inside their home alongside a note that said, “go back to your country, you terrorist.”
On Twitter, where her death became the most-discussed topic worldwide within hours, bloggers and journalists traced a connection between the headscarf the pious mother of five wore and the hooded sweatshirt 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was wearing when he was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fl.
A police spokesman told The Union-Tribune that the family told investigators a similar note was found outside the house earlier this month, but Ms. Alawadi had dismissed it as a prank and did not report it to the authorities.
The spokesman, Lt. Mark Coit, said: “A hate crime is one of the possibilities and we will be looking at that. We don’t want to focus on one issue and miss something else.”
