A Week in Watts Page #4

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We had rumor that, earlier in the night,

the suspect vehicle was driving around

Nickerson Garden projects and was shot

at by people that were in the projects.

So it's possible that it was

retaliation for that shooting.

You can all see

the rounds from the shooting

and impacted the walls

all along the bottom

and according to the video,

is consistent with victim number two

getting shot in the ankle

as they lead him across the bottom.

Rosco expired over here,

while the other member of Bounty Hunter

Bloods ran north just out of sight.

The vehicle then took off,

headed towards Jordan Downs,

and that's when

southeast homicide detectives...

I believe it was

Hicks and Bayhart took over

and they did convict one member

of the Grape Street Crips with the murder.

My first OIS was in Nickerson Gardens.

My partner and I were on a radio call

that we picked up,

but we were not in a black and white,

we were in an undercover car.

While we were answering the call,

it was a member of-

a gang member that went by us on a bike

and kind of flipped us off.

When he went around the building,

I heard several shots.

At that time I thought he was just

trying to provoke a foot pursuit.

My partner and I gave chase

and when we came around the building,

there were numerous members of this gang

executing another individual.

We then engaged in a gunfight

and at the end, two people were dead.

I blacked out.

I had just a couple of years on the job.

There was high power rifles involved.

We were very, very lucky and I didn't

remember a lot of the incident.

After the shooting,

officers and myself got together.

We were really frustrated with the amount

of money that's poured into rehabilitation

trying to save gang members

when the flip side is that

the people in this community

that were doing really well

were not getting the same resources.

Kids that were graduating high school

didn't have a path

or didn't have any finances to get there.

As a response to that,

officers in southeast started raising

money to provide scholarships for them.

Once considered the enemy,

police are now considered mentors

to some children growing up in Watts.

They're part of a program

called Operation Progress.

As part of Operation Progress,

each student is assigned an officer

who keeps track of their schoolwork.

Executive Director, Theresa Gartland, says

an LAPD gang officer founded the program.

The Operation Progress

LAPD Mentoring Program

is the highest form

of community policing there is.

Students apply to be

a part of it and are accepted in.

The kids are given scholarships

to private schools

with perfect graduation rates.

Verbum Dei and St. Mary's

graduation rate is 100 percent

compared to Nickerson Gardens,

which is ten percent.

What I found is that

working with the LAPD officers,

they're on these radio calls

and they meet these kids in,

you know, desperate needs of time

and want to help but don't have

the personal means to help them

and don't know how to.

Um... and Operation kind of

became that vehicle for a lot of officers

to give back to the community

that they were working in.

I didn't come from

rich background or anything,

but my parents worked hard

to give me everything that I needed

and the stepping-stones and

building blocks to become the man I am.

So I felt that it was only right that if

I pass that on to not just my kids,

but every kid

I get the opportunity to help,

I want to give them the same opportunities

that I had growing up.

I volunteered at a Catholic school

in southeast D.C.

you know, twenty minutes

from the White House,

but in a very gang ridden,

economically disadvantaged neighborhood,

and I realized that service work

is really my passion.

After I taught at Ascension

Catholic Grade School for three years,

I moved on to Verbum Dei High School,

and I worked there for several years.

There was a nonprofit

on Verbum Dei's campus.

That's where I got my roots

in this community.

You know, I think when

people come into this neighborhood,

they're either committed and you're all in

or you're not committed

and you stay here

for a brief period of time.

Theresa is clearly committed

to this neighborhood.

Gartland, to the kids,

doesn't roll off their tongue,

and so I said just call me Miss G.

So that kind of became my name

in the neighborhood and I feel like

a lot of people know me as Miss G.

One afternoon we started talking

and I asked her if she would

help with Operation Progress.

The two of us definitely come from

two different viewpoints.

In the neighborhood of Nickerson Gardens,

Theresa and I are opposite.

She's well liked by the community,

and I'm not.

Hey, where we going?

We'll drive through Nickerson together,

and I sometimes try

to scooch down in my seat

because I don't want to be seen with him.

But, you know, he'll open my eyes

to what people have done in the past,

which I didn't realize and I've been able

to say these are the success stories.

These are the kids

who really want to make it.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- How are you?

- Good.

So I met Jennifer three years ago

when we were just starting the program,

and she was one of our first students

that we put into St. Mary's.

I loved the process of

working with her because one,

she just is this diamond.

She just shines wherever she goes

and to see her progression over the

past three years has been so beautiful.

Operation Progress provides students

with a great quality of education.

We each have the opportunity

to go to private schools

on a full ride scholarship.

They also incorporate

mentoring with the LAPD officers,

and I feel like that's also

a great part of the program.

Yeah, I'm getting used to it,

but my neighbors,

they'll creep out sometimes

and people give them stares.

I'm just like, "Okay. "

It is kind of weird,

but you get used to it.

My mentor is Officer Goosby,

and he was also there when

Operation Progress was beginning,

and he has been my mentor since then,

and he's always providing me

with words of wisdom.

Also, Officer Holliman,

I see him as a father figure in my life.

And they're just great people

to be around.

Jennifer has the drive

to where she would have made it,

because of her internal drive

to be successful.

However, it would have been difficult.

The designated school

I was supposed to go to

was this high school my brother went to

which is King Drew Magnet High School.

I probably would be focused on my grades,

but I don't think I would have been

as focused on my future

as I am here at St. Mary's Academy,

because St. Mary's Academy

has provided structure for me.

I know Jennifer is like

the poster child

so she like stands out

everywhere she goes,

but it's also because she's so bright.

She's so infectious.

Jennifer's my pioneer.

She's awesome.

We had lunch one day, and Coughlin

interviewed me at the station.

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