A VIGIL IS BEING HELD FOR A NEWARK ACTIVIST KILLED IN THE CROSSFIRE
WBGO News via RSS

Newark - (WBGO News 11/5/2009)

A vigil is being held Thursday evening for a 22-year-old Newark activist who tried to prevent the violence that took his own life.
 

Marques-Aquil Lewis says his friend was a talented filmmaker and graphic artist who encouraged young people to put down their guns and pick up a camera to express themselves. Lewis says Yusef Shabazz was once a troubled teen himself, but turned his life around when he was 16.

“Yusef always said that he didn’t want to live the life that he saw his father live … and he didn’t want to be another statistic to society.”

Friends say Yusef died early Wednesday morning after being shot at the Garden Spires housing complex. Another man was injured and taken to an area hospital. They believe Shabazz was an innocent bystander and simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The office of the Essex County Prosecutor and Newark Police Department did not return our calls for comment.

Lewis says the two of them had planned on organizing a citywide youth conference on violence and he still plans to do so to honor Shabazz. The young activist leaves behind his mother, and four-year-old son.

© 11/5/2009 WBGO News