I Was a College Student — Then I Got Sent To Rikers & New York Prison | Khallid Barber
September 1, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readKhallid Barber was a computer science student at Old Dominion University, three weeks removed from a night where he fired a gun during a shootout outside a Queens after-hours club. No one was hit, no police came that night, and he thought he had been given a second chance. He packed his bags for his senior year. Then, at 5 a.m. in his dorm room, a dozen police officers arrived. That moment, and the three years that followed through Rikers Island and the New York state prison system, became the central fact of his life.
The Decision and the Arrest
Barber describes his upbringing in the Bronx and later Danbury, Connecticut, as "very decent." Both his biological father and stepfather were present, his mother was an entrepreneur, and he was a self-described class clown who went to private and charter schools before transitioning to public high school. He graduated and went to Buffalo State University for computer science, but the pandemic sent him home. Back in his old environment, he started partying, drinking to ease his anxiety, and falling in with what he calls "wrong influences." He began carrying a gun because he felt it gave him a power and protection he otherwise lacked.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Advertisements** - Multiple ad spots for Bath & Body Works, Whole Foods Market, and Shopify.
- 2 (02:04) **The Arrest & Introduction** - The episode opens with the dramatic 5 a.m. arrest of Khallid Barber at his college dorm, followed by the host's introduction to his story.
- 3 (02:47) **Upbringing & Early Life** - Khallid details his family structure, good upbringing, and transition from private to public school.
- 4 (05:39) **College, Pandemic, & The Wrong Crowd** - The shift from a promising college trajectory to partying and negative influences during the pandemic.
- 5 (11:20) **The Night of the Shooting** - The specific events leading up to the club shooting that changed his life.
- 6 (14:45) **The Mindset Behind the Gun** - An analysis of why a college student with a good family felt the need to carry an illegal firearm.
- 7 (16:15) **The Arrest & Charges** - The three-week gap, the dorm raid, and learning the severity of the charges.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Khallid Barber grew up in New York with a good family and a solid upbringing, went off to college, came home for break, got around the wrong crowd, and got involved in a club shooting he thought he got away with — until three weeks later cops showed up at his college and arrested him for attempted murder. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what the arrest that interrupted everything actually felt like, what facing attempted murder charges as a college student actually involved, what three years inside Rikers Island and the New York state prison system actually required of him to survive, and what figuring out the work release program that gave him a path back actually looked like for someone who had a future before one night at a club changed everything.
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#rikersisland #college #truecrimestories
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Connect with Khallid Barber:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khallidbarber/
Book: https://khallidbarber.com/
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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
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Timestamps:
00:00 A Knock at 5 AM
00:42 A Good Upbringing in the Bronx
02:20 Class Clown to Trouble
04:43 High School and College Years
06:36 The Pandemic's Wrong Turn
09:18 The Night at the Club
12:03 Why I Carried a Gun
14:42 The Aftermath and Arrest
20:22 Hauled Out in Cuffs
21:55 Bail and a Double Life
27:09 Fighting the Charges
30:48 Sentenced to 3 Years
32:27 Arriving at Rikers Island
36:00 Isolation and Solitary
38:53 Transferred Upstate
43:13 Choosing the Right Influences
47:43 Applying for Work Release
50:33 Life on Industrial Release
56:14 Work Release and Finding a Job
01:02:42 Coming Home for Good
01:05:36 Life Today and Second Chances
01:07:57 A Changed Mindset
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