My Statement on the Multiple Shootings on Leslie Street and Chancellor Avenue in Newark, NJ

My Statement on the Multiple Shootings on Leslie Street and Chancellor Avenue in Newark, NJ’s Southward Section (The Weequahic Section) that took place Saturday, November 15, 2025

Five people became the victims of senseless community violence on Leslie Street and Chancellor Avenue in Newark, NJ on Saturday, November 15, 2025 around 7: 00 pm. “I am outraged over the killing of our 10 year old baby and our 21 year old woman. As a father of four, I sympathize with the families that have lost loved ones to violence. My heart goes out to them. May Allaah (Arabic word for the Creator of all the worlds) comfort their hearts in this time of loss. Aameen.

Masi Rogers, the 19 year old victim of the mass shooting on Leslie and Chancellor Avenue in Newark, NJ, has died. He was one of my former students at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ. He always showed me respect as a teacher, as a Black man, and as a human being in my classroom at Weequahic. Unfortunately, brother Masi has joined my long list of students I lost to street violence. I have lost over 50 kids to senseless community violence. SMDH (Shaking My Damn Head)! May Allaah (SWT) forgive him of sins and grant him paradise. Aameen.

https://abc7ny.com/amp/post/community-comes-together-remember-newark-shooting-victims/18205718/

10, 000 were called that afternoon on November 16, 2025 in the South Ward (the Weequahic Section) at Leslie / Wainwright and Chancellor in Newark, NJ at 4 pm! The Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) organized the people and the community for a balloon releasing ceremony, healing circle and peace rally that afternoon. All hands were on deck to send a message that senseless community violence is unacceptable in our neighborhoods! (watch video footage here).

Prayers from both the Islamic and Christian clergy were given to the family and community and the youth. The rally ended with a seven harambe ceremony (putting your fist in the air and then pulling of the fist down to your chest 7 times) to challenge the community to unify under the principle of unity without uniformity. Hamrambe is an African kiswahili word for people pulling together. Using the African Yoruba words Ibaye (in English it means blessing to ancestors. And Asé meaning it is so), the last ceremonial procedure was paying homage to the ancestors by pouring libation (water) on the earth to honor new ancestors: the 10 year old child and the woman.

The NAVC responded to a deadly shooting in Newark on Saturday, November 15, 2025 that killed a young woman and a child, and injured three others at that time.

Through the extreme heat, the cold winter, the rain, and the snow, the NAVC led an epic 155-week protest against senseless community violence from 2009 to 2014 (5 years straight). It became the longest running anti-violence demonstration in American history.

The NAVC was outraged about the city and the people accepting abnormal levels of senseless community violence as a way of life at that time. Therefore, from the very first NAVC anti-violence protest on that Wednesday of July 22nd, 2009, we crisscrossed the city of Newark shutting down intersections every week in neighborhoods plagued by senseless community violence to organize the people against violence. Sometimes we even shutdown highways, byways, and most importantly, consistently blocked traffic at the city’s famous busy downtown Broad and Market Streets to force elected officials to make senseless community violence a public health emergency policy.

But as a longtime educator, community activist, and Muslim in the city, I cannot help but to conclude that there are conditions that create senseless community violence. And if we don’t address these conditions, senseless community violence will become a greater plague in our communities. I think some people in our society really don’t understand the nature of senseless community violence. I don’t know if we totally understand as a society that we need more policies, mentorships, therapists, and jobs to curtail senseless community violence. In Newark, NJ, Mayor Ras J. Baraka has done a great job challenging the system to provide resources to fund and employ many groups that have helped reduce senseless community violence dramatically in the city through his Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. But regardless of government sponsored anti-violence initiatives or community based anti-violence initiatives; we must have a proper education on the knowledge of self that will give us pride and purpose and direction and make us value our own humanity. The plague of senseless communty violence is still gripping the Black community in 2025. And at the center of senseless community violence are the centuries of white supremacist ideology, poverty, and systemic racist practices that made Black lives not matter to Black people in America and to humanity.”

Stop the Shooting! Stop the Killing! Stop the Violence! Black Power! All Power to the People! As Salaamu Alaykum (Arabic for May Peace be unto you)! Hotep (an ancient African Egyptian / Kemetic word peace)! P.E.A.C.E. (Proper Education Always Corrects Errors)! Peace in the Streets!

Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele

-Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele is a community activist, a member of the Muslim community in New Jersey, a member of ASCAC (the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations), and a member of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC. He is also a history and Africana Studies (Black Studies ) teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ.