LaPatrick “Abdul Malik” Turner
Photograph of LaPatrick and daughter Nasia, obtained from Facebook.
LaPatrick Turner was born in Dothan, Alabama on May 25th, 1965. He was married to Joyce Atkins and co-wife Sheresa, having five children with Sheresa. He also had four grandchildren, Darius, Kaiann, Evalena, and Kaamil.
He lived in North Brunswick, New Jersey as an adult and eventually passed away in Newark, New Jersey on June 9th, 2020, at the age of 55. LaPatrick, who later went as Abdul Malik, was known as a source of laughter to those around him and was always dedicated to his large and loving family. His family remembers him as a hardworking man who “had a big heart.”
Photograph of LaPatrick, obtained from Al Firdous Funeral Home.
LaPatrick was only one year away from release when he passed away and became the 47th incarcerated person to die due to the COVID-19 outbreak in New Jersey prisons. He passed in the midst of the #SayTheirNames movement, a protest focused on highlighting the poor containment of the novel coronavirus in New Jersey prisons and the incarcerated people who died due to this mishandling. His name is one of many on a list of incarcerated New Jerseyans who also died tragic, preventable deaths as a direct result of the refusal of the state carceral system to adequately protect incarcerated persons from the Coronavirus.
In a post on Facebook, beneath a photo of LaPatrick and his daughter Nasia at her graduation, Nasia describes him as “gone but forever present” and says she knows he was always proud of her.
Photograph of LaPatrick and daughter Nasia, obtained from Facebook.
“No one should have to die alone without a family member or family members there beside them,” LaPatrick’s friend, Garry Sykes, writes on Facebook. “Never in a million kazillion years I would of thought it would have ended like this, but I get some comfort in knowing you fought this fu[c]ked up virus with all your strength, heart and spirit until the end and who am I to question the creator’s final decision. So Rest Easy in Paradise and Give Your Moms, Junior and Bryce a Hug for Me.”
“You are loved. No more pain,” Nasia captions a photo of her as a child with LaPatrick. “Rest peacefully, we got mommy.”
This memorial was written by MOL team member Elizabeth Torres-Griefer with information from an obituary by Al Firdous Funeral Home, Garry Syke and Nasia Turner on Facebook, and reporting by Michael Symons of New Jersey 101.5 and New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement.
