The Wednesday night ceremony celebrated a bright student studying to be a lawyer with the hopes of someday fighting police brutality. Morad's family says he was a nationally ranked debater at El Camino Real Charter High School and later Moorpark College and held a 3.9 G.P.A.
"He was a genius. He knew everything about everything," his sister Ghada Morad said.
His high potential made his sudden death all the more shocking.
"I still quite haven't accepted it. I was texting him, expecting him to text me back and he's obviously not going to text me back," Morad's friend Connor Phillips said.
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Morad's friends say while he was studying in Long Beach Saturday, he tried mushrooms and had a reaction so severe he jumped out of a window. He was shirtless and covered in blood, witness Ryan Forbes said
Forbes added Morad was in a "state of utter distress" and "didn't know where he was."
A 911 call details the scene:
Caller: I think one of our neighbors might be intoxicated and they fell out of a window and they're bloody.
Dispatcher: Where are they right now?
Caller: He's kind of irate. They're walking around. Some friends are trying to get him back.
Long Beach police said the officer pulled out his gun after a Taser didn't stop Morad from charging. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"We were saying don't shoot, don't shoot, he's not armed," Forbes said.
Organizers at the vigil sold t-shirts with "Justice 4 Feras" printed on them. Thousands have shared Morad's story on social media.
"This has to end and this has to be the beginning of a movement," Morad's cousin Kareem Morad said.