After serving more than 24 years in prison for killing college student Tariq Khamisa at age 14, Hicks devoted his life to violence prevention and restorative justice alongside Khamisa’s family

NEED TO KNOW

Tony Hicks, who was convicted of murder at 14 before later dedicating his life to restorative justice and violence prevention alongside the family of the man he killed, has died. He was 45.

The Tariq Khamisa Foundation, where Hicks served on the board and spoke to thousands of young people each year about accountability, forgiveness and the consequences of violence, announced his death on Thursday, July 30.

“Tony’s life was a powerful testament to courage, accountability, healing, and transformation,” the statement reads. “His voice and his personal journey helped others see the humanity in each other, and led them to believe in the greater possibility of healing, forgiveness and change.”

The organization did not disclose a cause of death.

In a later Instagram post, the foundation thanked supporters for the “love and support” they had shown following Hicks’ death and said it would continue carrying forward “the light, hope, and healing” he brought to countless people through his work.

Retired San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Weber, who sentenced Hicks to 25 years to life in prison in 1995, told NBC San Diego she “started sobbing uncontrollably” when she learned of his death.

“It was a devastating shock,” Weber said, later calling Hicks’ transformation “extraordinary.”

She also described the reconciliation between Hicks and the family of his victim, Tariq Khamisa, as “the most exceptional showing of forgiveness” she had ever witnessed.

PEOPLE previously reported that Hicks was 14 when he fatally shot the 20-year-old San Diego State University student during a botched robbery in January 1995. Tariq, a journalism major, had been lured to a fake address while delivering pizzas before he was confronted by a group of teenage gang members. Hicks later pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Rather than directing his grief toward the teenager who killed his son, Tariq’s father, Azim Khamisa, came to believe there were “victims at both ends of the gun.” Nine months after Tariq’s death, he founded the Tariq Khamisa Foundation to honor his son’s memory and help steer at-risk children away from violence.

When Hicks wasn’t yet ready to meet him, Khamisa instead reached out to Hicks’ grandfather, Ples Felix, who joined him in the foundation’s work with young people.

Years later, Khamisa and Hicks met face-to-face inside Folsom State Prison.

“The seminal moment was when we locked eyeballs,” Khamisa told PEOPLE in 2024. “Tony was 19 and I’m trying to find a murderer in him and I wasn’t. He was remorseful. He was well-mannered … So I told him, ‘I’ve forgiven you.’”

Hicks, whose mother was 14 when she gave birth to him, told PEOPLE he had been searching for acceptance after running away from his grandfather’s home and becoming immersed in gang life.

“I was trying to impress my friends [by shooting Tariq] in hopes of not being abandoned by them or rejected by them,” he said. “Of course, I knew that I had done something wrong … When I was captured, I lied to the police because deep down I knew I had done something wrong.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

After serving 24 years and four months in prison, Hicks was released in 2019. He went on to work as a plumber while joining the foundation’s board, where he frequently spoke alongside Khamisa at schools and community events.

“Being able to work with the foundation, being able to have a connection with Azim and Tasreen and her children, has helped me greatly in my healing process,” Hicks previously told PEOPLE. “It makes me feel a level of joy to be able to do something like this and work towards righting the wrongs I’ve done in my life.”

The relationship between Hicks and the Khamisa family extended beyond their work together.

“I’ve taken on a fatherly role with Tony because his father was not in his life back then,” Khamisa said in 2024. “I love Tony. His grandfather is as close to me as my own brother. We are very much a family.”