Aquil Basheer, founder of the Stop the Violence Foundation and the Peace and the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute, speaks Oct. 4 at his organization’s leadership award program. His organization The Build Program announced Nov. 7 that Basheer has died.
Photo by Ian Foxx
Wave Staff and Wire Reports
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Aquil Basheer, who worked to reduce gang violence here and elsewhere and founded The Build Program, is being mourned by Mayor Karen Bass and others after his recent death.
“I am deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Aquil Basheer, an extraordinary mentor, educator, and tireless advocate for community violence intervention,” Bass said in a statement posted on X Nov. 9.
“Dr. Basheer was more than a colleague and a friend — he was a visionary leader who dedicated his life to building the infrastructure our communities need to protect and support those doing critical violence prevention work, Bass wrote. “His commitment to de-escalation training and his partnership with organizations like [the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program] created pathways for countless practitioners to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to save lives.
“As the founder of BUILD-PCITI, Dr. Basheer equipped an entire generation of violence intervention professionals with the tools, knowledge and courage to advance this essential work,” Bass added. “His impact extends far beyond any single program or partnership; it lives on in every community member he trained, every life touched by those he mentored, and every practitioner standing on the foundation of his leadership.”
Basheer, the son of LA’s first Black firefighter, founded The Build Program at The Professional Community Intervention Training Institute in 1992. The group, whose headquarters is at 1409 W. Vernon Ave., “provides targeted violence prevention/gang intervention, high-risk incident response, comprehensive public safety training, community mobilization, and cooperative activism to numerous cities across the United States and across the globe,” according to its website.
BUILD stands for Brotherhood Unified for Independent Leadership Through Discipline.
“It deeply saddens us to deliver this news,” The Build Program said Nov. 7 in announcing Basheer’s death on Facebook. “Dr. Aquil Basheer was more than a pioneer — he was a pillar to our movement. A former Black Panther, an international commander who structured human engagement for justice and a visionary who led thousands of frontline practitioners across the world. Above all, he was a devoted family man whose strength, compassion and integrity guided everything he did.”
Basheer has lectured and conducted anti-violence training around the world, including for the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
In 2014, he wrote the book, “Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence.”
In 2015, Basheer received an honorary doctorate of humanities from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in a ceremony at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Basheer was honored Oct. 4 at the Stop the Violence Increase the Peace and the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute Foundation’s 2025 Community Safety Leadership Awards at Los Angeles Southwest College. He received the Pinnacle Leadership Award for Public Safety.
During the event, Basheer announced he had selected Marquis Rey Liggins, to replace him as the executive director of the Build Program.
Liggins said he had learned a lot from Basheer.
“When I met Dr. Basheer 10 to 15 years ago, I was honored just to be in the same room with him,” Liggins said. “I was a fly on the wall and filled with amazement as I listened to the teachings and training that he was able to provide.”
Build Program Board Chair Khalid Shaw paid tribute to Basheer whom he said had trained thousands of interventionists, youth, law enforcement and community leaders, giving them the tools to carry on their public safety work.
“Let us honor the past, elevate the present and build the future with the same precision, passion and power that Aquil Basheer taught us to carry,” he said.
No cause of death was given.
A public memorial service will be announced at a later date, according to Build officials.
