Michael Fields laughed as he fondly recalled a special day in North Philadelphia nearly 30 years ago, when he took his little cousin, Malik Austin, to the barbershop for his first haircut.
“He was about 2 years old and he had a big ol’ Afro, and I said, ‘Naw, this has got to go,’” Fields chuckled. “I took him to a place on Germantown Avenue. It was quite an experience, but he did well. He sat there in the chair and took it like a man. Everybody was nice to him and he got a lollipop. He was happy. I’ll always remember that happy look on his face.”
A sigh, and a lengthy pause, followed Fields’ joyful recollection as his thoughts traveled forward to the morning of Dec. 6, 2017, when he learned that Malik had died just a few hours earlier at Temple University Hospital after being found shot multiple times from point-blank range on the 700 block of East Madison Street in Kensington shortly after midnight. Malik was 32 years old.
“It hurts,” Fields says. “It still hurts. I don’t think any of us will really get over it.”
Malik, known to his friends as “Leek Buck,” was born on May 5, 1985, and grew up in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia. Difficult circumstances familiar to scores of people in North Philadelphia made life a struggle for Malik from the outset.
“We all grew up poor,” Fields said. “I’m gonna keep it real, I don’t wanna candy coat it. It was a broken family, everybody was below the poverty line, there was drugs around — (Malik) saw a lot of things that young kids shouldn’t have to at that age.”
Though he was busy raising his own family, Fields spent time with Malik whenever he could, taking him to the playground and encouraging him to play basketball and football. But for the most part, Malik “didn’t have a lot of supervision, he didn’t have the picket fence with the mother and the father. It wasn’t that kind of life. It was him and his siblings. The streets raised them.”
A good athlete who loved hip-hop music — “I don’t know any young kids that don’t love the rap!” Fields laughed — Malik became known in the neighborhood as a snappy dresser, and, said Fields, he was very well-liked and known for being dependable.
“As he became an adult, he became very heavily leaned on by the family for whatever reason,” Fields said. “Any kind of problems, you could call Malik and he would come. He’d listen to your problems, he was a family guy, there wasn’t nothin’ he wouldn’t do for his family, especially his siblings. As he got older, he was the one that they looked to the most, even though he wasn’t the oldest.”
Malik was considered a leader among his peers, a person who “carried himself a certain way” and typically displayed a strong exterior, but, Fields said, “When he was with his family, he felt like he could let his guard down. Especially on the streets of Philadelphia, you always have to have your game face on, but around your family is the time when you can just be who you are. You don’t have to be the toughest guy or the protector of the group, you can just be yourself.”
His cousin had spent some time in jail, Fields said, but even though Malik had some pitfalls in life, “he had turned a corner and things were going better for him, especially after the birth of his children.”
In his last years, Malik, who resided in East Falls, doted on his two sons — spotlighted regularly on his Instagram feed.
But in the end, Fields sighed once more, “It’s just those streets, those streets are unforgiving. If he was out there trying to live right, the streets still got him. It’s rough out there, it’s always been rough.”
No arrests have been made in Malik’s killing.
“I miss him a lot,” Fields said. “He was beloved.”
Malik is survived by his two sons and a daughter who was born after his death.
Anyone with information about Malik’s killing can call 215-686-TIPS or e-mail [email protected]. All tips can be made anonymously.
Date: 2017-12-06
Location: 700 E Madison St., Philadelphia, PA
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