Share their story of murder, redemption and forgiveness with young people across the country

Tony Hicks was a 14 -year -old lean member when he killed the pizza delivery driver Tariq Khamisa. It was in 1995. A 25 -year sentence for life. There is a life.

Khamisa was 20 years old, a full -time student from the State University of San Diego and delivering part -time when he refused to be stolen in a street in North Park. Last Thursday would have been his 51st anniversary.

The years that followed led to the creation of a foundation on behalf of Khamisa, that dedicated to the end of the violence of young people. These years also put the family and hicks of Khamisa on the way to forgiveness.

And Friday, Hicks, out of prison and now in the middle of the 40 years, joined Khamisa’s father, Azim and his sister Tasreen, to share their history with nearly 300 students from four high schools in the county of North. It was part of Youth in Court, an annual program at the Vista courthouse which presents students with the third branch of the government.

The Tariq Khamisa Foundation, or TKF, has already been one of the young people in court. But Friday’s panel marked the first time that Tony Hicks was assisted. It was also the first time that he made a presentation in person with the judge of the Superior Court of San Diego, Joan Weber, who moderated the panel. Weber was the judge who sentenced him to a compulsory life of 25 years in life for decades ago.

The students listened to Hicks said he felt that his gang was at the time his family. So when he was told to pull the trigger from a 9 mm and pull Khamisa, “I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “I turned because I wanted to impress my peers.”

He spoke of the “transactional” nature of the gangs. He talked about guilt and the shame of what he had done. And he talked about forgiveness from the Khamisa family. “It was still a struggle for me to feel like I deserved to be forgiven for what I had done,” he said.

Tariq’s father, Azim Khamisa, spoke about his own way to “become a force of change”.

“When I discovered that Tariq had been shot dead, I had an experience out of the body because the pain was so atrocious,” said Khamisa. “And I believe that I entered the loving embrace of God, and when the explosion calmed down, I came back to my body with the wisdom that there are victims at the two ends of the weapon.”

Nine months later, he started TKF “with the mission of preventing children from killing children by breaking the cycle of violence for young people”. Khamisa also approached Hicks grandfather, Ples Felix, who had raised Hicks and who jumped at the opportunity to be part of TKF. Thirty years later, the foundation connected to 600,000 young people across the country.

Released from prison in 2019 – The Khamisa family was pressure for this, just like Weber and a former district prosecutor – Hicks is now working full time as a approved plumber. He also volunteers with TKF, attending school assemblies with the Khamisa family to tell his story. “It was cathartic for me,” he told the crowd on Friday.

After Friday’s presentation, a student headed for Hicks. “I had to speak, to shake his hand,” said Andres Gonzalez.

The 18 -year -old said that he had recently lost a loved one because of violence.

“I entered here with a hardened heart, and I go with a softened heart,” said Gonzalez.

He found listening to the “comforting” discussion.

“I try to work to forgive others,” said the young man, “and I think this presentation will help.”

The murder occurred on January 21, 1995 – 21 days after a change of law allowed prosecutors to try a juvenile as young as 14 years old in adulthood. Hicks was the youngest Californian at the time to face this fate. He pleaded guilty at 15. At 16, the state placed Hicks in the Folsom state prison.

In 2019 – the same year, Hicks obtained parole – State law changed so that no one can be charged in adulthood for any crime.

California Daily Newspapers