Students and staff of San Jose City College were very sad, mad and disappointed that Harris Ahmed is no longer with us.
Student of SJCC, Ahmed, 21, was identified as a pedestrian that was hit and killed on interstate 280 Thursday morning of March 28 according to The Mercury News.
Ahmed ran across the lanes just north of McLaughlin Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol. He was hit in the third lane by a city of San Jose box truck.
Monday April 8, students and staff were invited to attend a service memorial for Ahmed at 1:30 p.m. inside the student center by the radio station and the outside patio to share a few memories of our late broadcasting student, Ahmed.
Ahmed was a student and an on-air personality known as Audacio at the talk shows of KJCC Radio and he was a developed Muslim.
Miranda was running a talk show around 1:30 p.m. when students and staff like Daniel Habteyes (D Money), Big Drama, Bryan Rapp, Betsy Gelhart, Jeff Ochoa, Blake Balajadia and others attended Ahmed’s service memorial to honor and pay their respects.
The memorial service was amazing and people shared their memories with Ahmed. At the end of the memorial service, Balajadia read a letter from a member of the Muslim Community Association which is thought of as a prayer for Ahmed from the MCA.
Here are some of the words Balajadia quoted from the MCA letter:
“May Allah have mercy on his soul. May Allah strengthen him in his questioning of the grave. May Allah forgive him all his sin’s. May Allah ease the pain of the pressure on him.
May Allah make his grave wide, May save him from the people that drink from the hands of prophets on judgement day.
May Allah make his garden a land of paradise, give him a home better than his home, a family neighbors better than his neighbors.
May Allah forgive all his shortcomings towards him, may Allah make his grave a garden of paradise. May Allah give his family patience. May Allah give him a home better than his home, a family better than his family, neighbors better than his neighbors.
May Allah enter him into the land of paradise. May Allah give his family patience and guidance in the communities to take care of each other needs.”
“I am really disappointed about what happened to Ahmed because he was a smart young man. I send prayers to Ahmed family and friends” said SJCC student, Fadia Zeid, 33.
“I just hope that he never had any regrets nor hate towards him and that he was forgiven and I’m glad that students and staff of San Jose City College showed up and showed their respects, and that shows how real people are in this world and how much they care,” said Kaalani Stevens, 18.
“My memory is Audacio’s radio talk show in the fall 2017 December 23rd and he wanted to get on the air and talk about his subject matter mental illness,” said Gelhart.
Somebody asked him if he should hide or be open about his mental illness. Gelhart quoted Ahmed saying, “People that may mind don’t matter, and people that matter don’t mind.”
One of the things Gelhart remembered is another talk show host was a Muslim and Audacio was her first guest. Audacio was so excited he had a call in guest! Gelhart said it was a great show and nobody wanted to leave the day before Christmas Eve. The talk show went on until 6 30 p.m. Audacio passed so much to us and he was doing so well. Ahmed had a great spirit” said Gelhart.
“When we first met we discussed religion when Audacio came to my radio show. We had our misunderstandings but the religion were extremely similar. I think he was a bit eccentric, well for me, I’m a little pushed in and he was able to drag that out of me. I was a Christian and he was a Muslim but we got a better understanding of each other. We got to know each other and it was cool we had a nice relationship“ DJ Drama said.
“The first time I met Audacio I was sitting in the student center writing up an essay and he walks up to me saying how he had a bad day yesterday and it seemed like he just wanted someone to talk to. Audacio is not afraid to walk up to somebody and start talking. Audacio really had an open mind,” Bryan Rapp, student, said.
“When we first heard something in the Mercury news at first we thought it was not one of our students because the name looked a little different. Then I looked online and i do know people from the Muslim community. Sure enough, the Muslim community did do something for him,” Balajadia said.
“Ahmed seemed like he knew many elders and I think that’s where he gets his broad perspective. I found out we had mutual friends through the Muslim community,” said Balajadia.
“I never knew him Audacio because I was not part of the radio broadcasting class. When Harris Ahmed and I first met we end up in a genuine conversation. If I ever met a philosopher in life it would be him,” Balajadia said.
“Ahmed would always see if things were ok. Audacio would always ask me a question. Audacio would ask questions like what is virtue. What’s is fatherhood? Nobody has ever asked me these kind of questions. Ahmed was needing more than I could give him but Ahmed always had something to teach,” Balajadia said.
I would share my knowledge to help him thinking I would benefit him but somehow he was always changing me. Ahmed was a positive person,” Balajadia said.
Ahmed knew many elders through his community and I think that’s where he gets his broad perspective. Ahmed would relate to things he heard that day,” Balajadia said.
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