Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

SPEAKER 1: August is the most dangerous month for homicides in Minneapolis. MPR News analyzed the last 10 years of data from the Minneapolis Police Department and found more people have been killed in August over the last decade than in any other month of the year.

So far this August, there have been five homicides in Minneapolis. All five victims were African-American men between the ages of 21 and 30. Each man had a criminal record. No suspects have been arrested, and Minneapolis Police declined to comment on why August tends to be so violent for this story.

Yet for every casualty of street violence, there are many more young Black men trying to beat the odds by leaving the path that often leads to early death or prison. Brandt Williams profiles a few of those young men.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Like many 21-year-old men, Tyron Jenkins' skin is etched with markings that illustrate key moments in his life. But these aren't tattoos. Jenkins has scars from bullet wounds.

TYRON JENKINS: I got hit in my lower back, and the bullet was lodged in my chest, like just stuck in my chest. And I got shot in my arm, too, right here.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: In March, Jenkins was sitting in a car not far from his home in North Minneapolis when a gunman drove up and shot him and a friend. As he sat there bleeding, Jenkins says he knew he was going to die. He was right.

TYRON JENKINS: And they said I died, actually.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Is that right? They had to revive you?

TYRON JENKINS: Yeah. Said I died, actually. But I'm here.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Jenkins is here on a sunny afternoon at Farview Park. He's wearing a Chicago Bears baseball cap on top of braided hair that lies in neat rows flat against his scalp. Jenkins is gregarious and easygoing as he chats with other anti-violence activists he's meeting with at the park.

Jenkins is trying to leave behind a life of crime and violence. He says he started running the streets doing petty crime at the age of 8 and got shot in the leg at 9. The bullet blew a large hole in his left leg. He pulls up his shorts and shows me a scar the size and shape of a Nerf football.

Jenkins lost so much blood, he says the doctors nearly amputated his leg. He says the doctors also told him he'd never walk normally again, but Jenkins proved them wrong. And he walked back into a world of drug dealing and gang life.

In 2010, Jenkins tried to put it all behind him when he joined a program for young men trying to leave Minneapolis street gangs. But he says the shooting earlier this year made him take an even harder look at his life.

TYRON JENKINS: At a point in time, I was just, like, why me? You know, like, why me? All I've been doing, all the change I'm trying to bring, all the positive energy I'm trying to bring to different situations. Why me? But at the same time, I seen it as a positive because it was definitely a eye-opener for me.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Jenkins was part of the first group of young men to join a program called North4. Like Jenkins, young men in the program are recruited to join because they live in one of four troubled neighborhoods in North Minneapolis and are trying to leave gang life. Over 15 weeks, participants get personal coaching and help finding jobs and furthering their education.

WILL WALLACE: 24/7, my phone is on.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Will Wallace works for Emerge, the nonprofit group that sponsors North4. Wallace not only recruits young men into the program, he's an on-call mentor and father figure.

WILL WALLACE: It's got to be drilled in them all the time. It's got to. Got to be more positive. How your day going? You know, Mr. Will, I filled out an application. That's good.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Wallace says many of the guys in the program never had a positive male role model in their lives. Instead, they received support and adulation from fellow gang members for their bad behavior. In the two years since the program started, it has helped 31 young men improve their lives.

As Wallace talks, Devonta Williams sits quietly nearby, nodding his head in agreement. Williams has already completed the program, but has applied for another term. He's 20 years old and a father of two children. Williams has a chiseled jaw and a movie star smile, when he chooses to show it, but now is not one of those times.

DEVONTA WILLIAMS: I've been through a lot through my life. I lost my brother at the age of 12. He was my oldest brother, so I lost him at the age of 12, and that kind of-- after that happened, I kind of just went down.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Williams says after his brother was murdered, his family just unraveled. And without a father around or his oldest brother to talk to, Williams says he went off the deep end.

DEVONTA WILLIAMS: I just gave up on life. I felt like, well, my brother not here. Why should I be here? Why should I be on this Earth? I mean, they took my brother. Now, I want to go take somebody. You feel me? Like, I want them to feel the same pain I'm feeling.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Williams says he became a gangbanger, an enforcer willing to fight at any time for fellow gang members. He says he was headed for an early death or a lengthy prison sentence. Williams wound up in a juvenile detention center, which gave him a chance to think about what he was doing with his life. Then one of his brothers introduced him to Will Wallace and North4.

DEVONTA WILLIAMS: Ever since this program, I have gotten back in school. I'm currently looking for jobs right now, but I'm really on my school stuff because I want to be a doctor when I get older.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Finding employment in the current economy is tough enough without a criminal record, but North4 participants get five week paid internships. For 19-year-old Demarlo West, that means a part-time job at El-Amin's Fish House on West Broadway Avenue.

During his brief orientation, West learns how to find his way around the kitchen. He arrived for his first day at the restaurant about 30 minutes early. West says he's excited to get working and knows a little bit about cooking and kitchen work.

DEMARLO WEST: I worked at McDonald's, Wendy's, and in the kitchen with my grandma, things like that. So I mean, I know what the quality and what I can do. Just got to show them.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: West was raised by his grandmother. He even has her name, Mary West, tattooed in script lettering on the backs of his hands. He wants to be a chef and restaurant owner someday, but right now, he wants to provide a stable environment for his son and daughter. West is homeless and sometimes sleeps in his Lincoln Town Car.

DEMARLO WEST: I want my son to do what I never did. You know what I'm saying? Have what I never had. You know what I'm saying? My dad ain't do nothing for me. Know what I'm saying? I'm finna do whatever I got to do. If I got to, you know what I'm saying, jump off a building for my son, I'm going to do that.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: West says his parents weren't around much when he was growing up. His mother was on crack. His father, in and out of prison. West says one of his brothers died of a cocaine overdose, and the rest of his siblings were sent to live in foster homes.

When he was 12, West says he and some friends started up a gang called the Taliban. He never got shot, but he says he got shot at many times. West also spent four months in the Hennepin County Home School for stealing a car.

In the movies, guys like Demarlo West, Devonta Williams, and Tyron Jenkins achieve their goals against all odds. But in the real world, their lives are unfinished scripts, filled with unexpected twists and turns. Even after his eye-opening near-death experience earlier this year, Tyron Jenkins got arrested and pleaded guilty to giving a false name to a police officer.

And Jenkins' school and career plans suffered a setback when he was placed on academic probation earlier this year. But none of that has deterred Jenkins' efforts to stop the violence among his peers. He says he doesn't know who shot him back in March, but when some of his friends told him that they wanted to find the shooter and administer some street justice, Jenkins told them no. He believes his life was spared so he can tell other young people what he's learned.

TYRON JENKINS: Watch who you surround yourself with and take care of your life. You know what I mean? If you appreciate your life, take care of your life.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Jenkins also says he may have to move out of his Northside neighborhood in order to protect himself. Ultimately, the goal of North4 and other programs that intervene in the lives of at risk youth is to get people like Jenkins to spread the word to their friends and colleagues.

The program has not kept every participant on the straight and narrow. Six young men in North4 have been sent to prison. But Will Wallace, the recruiter, mentor, father figure of North4, points out that all 31 men who've completed the program are still alive.

Wallace says this spring, the program received enough funding to continue through 2014 and help 60 more young men try to change their lives. Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.