Body: Man who fought violence is shot to death
By Tom Lochner
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
EL CERRITO - A man hailed by community activists as a giant of West Contra Costa's Stop-the-Violence campaign was shot early Sunday and died in a fast-food restaurant parking lot.
Waleed Elahi, 32, a Vallejo resident who spent much time mentoring young people in Richmond, where he grew up, was a coach of the Richmond Steelers youth football squad that won USA Football national titles in four age groups in the past two years.
A builder who worked for his contractor father and had a separate career as a music promoter, Elahi organized last year's TK Benefit Concert at the Richmond auditorium in honor of slain De La Salle football star Terrance Kelly of Richmond, said a friend, Minister Mustafah Muhyee of St. John Missionary Baptist Church.
Elahi also worked with the Omega Boys Club in Vallejo and the Richmond Street Warriors, a group of men who go out into the community to teach young people alternatives to violence and crime and help them enroll in college or apprenticeships, said Qualaam Rashid, a former director of a softball league who heads In Life's Orchards, a foundation with a goal similar to the Street Warriors.
"His death is a tremendous blow to all of us who have been working in the stop-the-violence efforts here in Richmond," said the Rev. Andre Shumake, president of the Richmond Improvement Association. "He was someone who had tremendous passion for kids."
El Cerrito police, responding to an initial report of a fight and a subsequent report of shots fired shortly before 3:30 a.m., found Elahi gravely wounded in the parking lot of Nation's Giant Hamburgers on Central Avenue between San Pablo Avenue and Carlson Boulevard. Elahi died at the scene.
Police had not yet viewed videos recorded by Nation's cameras, El Cerrito police Sgt. Steve Bonini said Sunday. Police could provide little information about the circumstances of the crime or any suspects or motive.
El Cerrito police asked that anyone with information call Detective Cpl. Donald Horgan at 510-215-4418.
Saturday night, several youths stayed over at Elahi's Richmond quarters in preparation for a football jamboree Sunday at Kennedy High School. Others came Sunday morning, "waiting to go to practice, but he didn't show up," Rashid said.
Elahi had some brushes with drugs and crime as a youth but turned his life around, friends say.
"God made him wise up, showed him that wasn't the way," said Muhyee, who has known Elahi for about 10 years.
Elahi's father, Stafford Elahi Sr., a convert to Islam in the 1960s, said the religion gave his son a foundation for clean living and concern for humanity.
Waleed Elahi attended Portola Middle School and Kennedy High School and eventually received a GED, the elder Elahi said. The son followed his father into the construction trade and used it as a teaching tool as well as to provide young people with jobs.
"He wasn't just teaching them to build houses," Stafford Elahi said. "He taught them to build character."
Elahi raised money for Steelers team members who could not afford dues, Shumake said. He remembered an anecdote about a struggling young player.
"Waleed instructed him to run a lap," Shumake remembered. "He not only told him to run the lap, he ran it with him.
"It was a powerful moment. It was an example of the one-on-one mentoring these boys need.
"That boy will probably remember that moment for the rest of his life."
Waleed Elahi's survivors include his brothers Khalid Elahi, who is a fellow coach of the Steelers, Stafford Elahi Jr., and Ayman Elahi; sister Zakiyyah Elahi; father, Stafford Elahi Sr.; and mother Joyce Elahi. Funeral arrangements are pending.
