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This NJ teacher has seen dozens of his former students fall victim to violence over the decades. The latest made him break down in tears. ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — It was a Wednesday in October when Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele got a call that made him break down in tears: yet another of his former students had been shot dead. Akinyele – a high school history teacher in Newark – is among the Essex County residents who are mourning for Hamza Abdul-Haqq, 36, who was killed in a shooting in East Orange last month. Police found Abdul-Haqq lying in the roadway on the 200-block of North Clinton Street on Oct. 28. The East Orange resident had a gunshot wound in his chest/back area. He was transported to University Hospital in Newark, and pronounced dead at 1:06 p.m. No suspects have been arrested. A police investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Akinyele said he learned about Abdul-Haqq’s death as he was walking to the local house of worship for late afternoon prayer on the day after the shooting. “I received a call from a former colleague who once taught at Weequahic High School that another one of my students was killed in the streets,” the educator recalled. “Once my former colleague told me his name, I broke down in tears.” “This former student was very close to me, who in his adulthood, became my friend,” Akinyele explained. “In fact, he just visited me at my house three weeks ago in Newark to chop it with me about obstacles of life, the struggle for Black liberation, the knowledge of self, and Al-Islam and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (s.a.’s.).” Akinyele noted that the shooting took place just a few blocks away from where Letrell Duncan – a sophomore and standout basketball player at East Orange Campus High School – was killed in 2022. “Four people I know have been killed in that area,” Akinyele said. See Related: Family, Friends Mourn East Orange Student Killed In Shooting A Janaazah (Islamic funeral service) was held for Abdul-Haqq on Friday at Masjid As Habul Yameen in East Orange. Akinyele was among the mourners who bid farewell to Abdul-Haqq, placing dirt on his grave site to say his “du’aa,” as per tradition. It was an emotional day – and an experience that he’s had far too often. The teacher says he has seen dozens of his students and former students fall victim to violence during his decades at Weequahic High School in Newark. “While I did these Islamic rituals for Hamza, the thoughts of all my students killed in the streets rushed into my consciousness,” he recalled. “I became overwhelmed with grief and disgust,” Akinyele said. “I don’t know if we totally understand as a society that we need policies, mentorships and a proper education that centers on curtailing violence. The plague of senseless community 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 in humanity.”
