How does a peace activist respond when, a dozen years after brokering a historic truce between gang leaders in Watts, his own son is shot in the back and killed, an innocent casualty of apparent gang terror? How does a hopeful immigrant who fled oppression react when his son is murdered in 'safe' America?

For Aqeela Sherrills, founder of the Community Self-Determination Institute, which provides conflict mediation, literacy training, and arts programming in Watts, California, the cold-blooded murder of his 18-year-old son, Terrell, has only strengthened his resolve to forgo the lethal culture of revenge. And for immigrant Azim Khamisa, forgiveness extended to partnering with the grandfather of his son's killer to run a San Diego foundation that teaches nonviolence and peaceful problem-solving in schools.

Terrell Sherrills, a first-year student at Humboldt State University, was murdered after attending a party in Los Angeles' typically quiet Ladera Heights neighborhood in January. Homicide detective Martin Rodriguez told a reporter for L.A. Weekly (Jan. 23, 2004) that 'the only thing we can think as far as a motive is that Terrell wore a red sweater in a predominately blue or Crip gang area.' In a letter to Utne, Aqeela Sherrills explained why his son was sporting the red Mickey Mouse sweater: Terrell liked Mickey regalia because, like the famous mouse, he had big ears.

'It's not about who killed my son, but what is killing our children,' Sherrills wrote Utne. While punishment is certainly in order, says Sherrills, so is answering a pressing but often overlooked question: What would cause a young man such inner pain that he would be driven to kill? Sherrills hopes to find the answer by someday meeting Terrell's killer (so far no one has been arrested for the crime) and the killer's parents.