Chandra Nagamallaiah, a 50 year old Indian-American man living in Dallas, Texas, was killed September 11th in a horrific attack.
His killer, 37 year old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, worked with Nagamallaiah at a motel. During a shift, Cobos-Martinez was reportedly cleaning a room with another coworker, when he got into an argument with Nagamallaiah over a broken washing machine. Nagamallaiah relied on the coworker in the room to translate instead of speaking to Cobos-Martinez directly, which angered the latter and ultimately led to the attack.
Shortly after the exchange, Cobos-Martinez was seen retrieving a machete, with which he would go on to chase and attack the victim. Nagamallaiah, who had fled to his motel office upon seeing Cobos-Martinez coming at him, was cut repeatedly and ultimately beheaded in front of his wife and son.
Cobos-Martinez was taken into custody at the scene after having been seen fleeing by first responders. His shirt was bloodstained, and he was found to be in possession of Nagamallaiah’s phone and motel key card, as well as the machete used in the attack. Following his arrest, the suspect admitted to law enforcement that he was responsible for the crime, and has been subsequently charged with capital murder.
Cobos-Martinez is currently being held in Dallas County Jail.
This gruesome and unspeakable crime has become controversial, as both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as well as President Donald Trump have blamed the tragedy on former loose immigration policies put into place by the Biden Administration. However, this event speaks to another problem within our nation: the selective nature of the media.
Following the murder of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, Nagamallaiah’s killing has largely gotten swept under the rug by media outlets, with The Juggernaut noting that his death has not been perceived as “politically convenient”. Of course, it is not unlikely that a more prominent and well-known man such as Kirk would appear more frequently in headlines, but the fact that Nagamallaiah’s story took so long to get out to the general public (partially due to the delayed issuing of official statements regarding the attack) is unsettling. As much as Charlie Kirk’s death is a tragedy in its own right, and certainly one that deserves to be recognized, there is no excuse for a crime as horrific as the one carried out by Cobos-Martinez to be so seldom acknowledged.
While the story out of Dallas has gotten more media coverage in the last few days, it is important to note that said coverage only escalated due to the political aspect of the story. Cobos-Martinez was an undocumented immigrant, and Nagamallaiah’s murder is now being used largely to support stricter border control and deportation measures within the United States, a trend that the media has taken a greater liking to than when the story was simply a true crime case.
Such a disparity in media representation reveals just how selective our media has become. It begs the question: should we as a society be exposed not only to the events that can be used to support a particular rhetoric, but those that offer diverse perspectives on the world around us? In an era where the digital media has a great amount of power to influence the thoughts and actions of those who subscribe to it, it seems clear that the latter approach is ultimately the more beneficial. After all, staying informed about everything, not only the “headline worthy” events, is the only true way to prevent terrible histories like this from repeating themselves.