DETROIT (WWJ) – Minister Malik Shabazz, one of Detroit's most prominent community activists, is fighting for his life after suffering a massive heart attack on Monday.
Shabazz was rushed to Henry Ford Hospital Monday morning, where he remains in critical condition. He was preparing to accept a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in Lansing on Monday prior to the heart attack.
For a man who has rallied in support of Detroiters for the better part of four decades, dozens of Detroiters rallied in support of him at a vigil outside the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
“When you talk community activism in Detroit, the first name that comes to mind is Minister Malik Shabazz. He is relentless in his effort to support Detroiters,” WWJ’s Jon Hewett reported from the vigil.
Shabazz is the founder of the New Black Panther Party/New Marcus Garvey Movement and a co-founder of the Detroit 300, a patrol group recently chosen by the city to help reduce violent crime as part of the ShotStoppers program.
“I’m asking all of you community groups to come together and reduce this crime in these neighborhoods. Not one group is gonna do it. It’s gonna take everybody. And this is what Minister Malik Shabazz would want, in addition to your prayers,” his wife Wanda Akilah Redmond said at Tuesday’s vigil.
Shabazz has rallied for many causes over the years, but has focused on helping missing people and murder victims.
Among those attending the vigil were Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Police Chief James White, politicians, other activists and clergy.
“He epitomizes, embodies community policing and transparency,” White said. “I’m gonna speak about him in the present because he’s still here. It’s in God’s hands. We’re gonna all pray for him. He’s a great – not good – a great community ambassador. He loves Detroit. He loves fighting for the person who’s not being fought for.”
Rev. W.J. Rideouts, who organized Tuesday’s vigil, said Shabazz has “sewn his life, his work, his untiring love to this community” for more than three decades.
“This man has always gone out and done [vigils] for everyone missing, dead, reported missing, murdered or even to try and stop violence on people,” Rideouts said. “So if he surely can do a [vigil] for the many and countless hundreds of people that he has done it for, then we ought to be out here. Every activist, every leader, every person to support him.”
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