South Bureau Homicide Page #6

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see you later everybody

'cause I gotta, I'm gonna

have.

I was on the phone actually,

when I first heard the shot.

I said please, my mom, my

son, and his girlfriend

has been shot.

I sat the phone down,

and then I'm thinkin',

I gotta set it down to where

nobody'll bump it or hit it,

'cause that have to

hear what's goin' on,

'cause I was by myself.

She laid down, I could

see her, I was like,

"Crystal, sweetie are you okay?"

After I came from my mom, to it,

then I went to go

see about my son.

'cause I heard him coughing.

Then, as he was coughing I had

turned away and

he spit up blood.

He was hit in the,

I knew it was somewhere

in the upper body.

And I said, "Son," he

was grabbin' at his neck,

so I immediately just

started choking him,

I think I choked him.

And I was like, "Son, oh

my gosh, we gotta get you

"to the hospital."

And when I ran out to

the street, I was like,

"Help, please, somebody,

help me, help me.

"My mom, my son, his

girlfriend, somebody."

And I seen the fire

department come,

and he parked, he

stopped right there,

and there.

I just needed help,

my mom was dyin'.

Crystal was dyin',

I needed to help my son

he was, they were dying.

It's okay,

it's okay, it's okay.

The ambulance passed

by me, he passed by me,

and I looked, and I'm

goin', "Right here,

"come on, jump the island,

I'm think, I'm like,

"get right here."

They didn't come.

He yelled at me, he

yelled at me, he was like,

"We can't do anything

until we get."

And I was where I could

see a group of police

down here already.

What makes you think

that it wasn't clear.

They're walkin' around

my mom, and my son,

and his girlfriend,

and they're dying.

They didn't get

no help.

Amen.

- Let us all pray.

Lord God, we come before you,

just once again, asking you

God to strengthen the family.

Lord, I ask, that you open

up the kingdom of heaven

for the grandmother,

for the young girl.

I ask God that you give

the son a speedy recovery.

Lord, I ask that you

continue to hold on

to this community.

All the resources that

we have, that we need.

We ask God that you

touch the community,

touch these politicians,

touch the congressmen,

touch everybody lettin'

'em know that we need

more help here.

We need help here, Lord.

All the funding

that's goin' around,

that's given out to other

places in the world,

we need it right

here in Englewood.

We need it right

here in Compton.

We need it right here in LA.

We need it right here in Watts.

Let 'em hear us, God.

We need resources oh

God, so we can put this,

just a stop onto this nonsense.

I ask God in the name of

Jesus, we rebuke that demon

in the name of Jesus.

We rebuke him in

the name of Jesus.

I ask that you clear

this neighborhood God,

with all this evilness.

Lord with all the

programs goin' on,

all the interventionists

that's doin' the work,

I ask God that you continue

to give them the resources

that we need to continue

to better the families.

You said raise up a child in

the way that they should be,

and when they grow old,

they will not depart.

So we need to take

our communities back.

But we need, oh God, your help

to get it to the people

that can change some things.

In the mighty name of Jesus

we pray to you and only you.

Let everyone that hears

the sound of my voice say,

"Thank God."

Thank God.

- And amen.

Amen.

We need to change some

policies, I know that.

We need some policy

changes, in this case.

- In 2009,

things were so troubling.

Cameras at that time, were

coming out and finding that

hysterical mother,

that hysterical wife,

that hysterical girlfriend,

and putting that

camera in her face.

And they were askin',

"Well how do you feel?"

That's such a stupid question.

I'm just gonna use

a plain word for it.

I'm not trying to be

political correct.

It was a stupid question.

So when the media stopped

coming to the vigils

and the murders, turned

their backs on us,

and just didn't care anymore,

and it was so obvious.

A higher power stepped in and

told me to take it to the air.

And I thought, I can't do that.

I don't know

anything about radio.

And I just found myself

over there in that office

one Monday, asking

for a time slot,

and paying them

for that 30 minutes

that turned into

Gang Talk Radio.

The

opinions expressed on the

following program are

those of the speaker,

and do not necessarily reflect

the views of KTYM radio,

its staff, management,

or clients.

- Well, hello, hello, hello.

God bless you community

family, and welcome to

Gang Talk with Sister

Herron and Skip Townsend.

I took on that name because

I had a passion for homicide.

I didn't go with

any dedicated plan,

I kinda backed into it.

And backed into it

because there was a need.

There was no voice, no voice

out here speaking to this

and I didn't really

go with an objective,

other than to

discuss this horror.

I asked you here for a

very specific purpose,

that was, to share your,

a little bit about your

history and how it brought

you to where you are now.

The best gift in the show

is to hear those wide-range

of voices, not just mine.

Hear the men, hear the

women, hear the kids,

hear the public leadership.

One day at school, I remember

the school being shut down.

Somebody said, "The Crips are

coming, the Crips are coming."

And so, I'm thinkin',

who are the Crips?

Who has this much power

to shut down a school?

I kinda took a pledge right

then, within myself to say,

whatever has that amount

of power, I wanted in,

I wanted in on that power.

I wanted to be a part a that.

- What was the pull,

did you wanna belong to that

fellowship of men?

Was it glamorized,

was it a safety net,

was it just a

sense of belonging?

To see, young men,

walkin', marchin' together,

hangin' out together, that

solidarity that they had,

it gave them a status

in the community.

So I wanted to be a part a that.

That was the mission statement

a Gang Talk, originally,

was to dialogue about this,

try to get more people engaged

to wake up, become

sensitive to it,

don't treat it like it's

somebody else's problem,

it's right in your neighborhood.

So it evolved that way.

You know, listenin' to

Ben, I was more infatuated

as well as

in fear of the power that

I seen these guys had had.

As I walked to and from school,

and to protect my little

brother and my sister,

I had to be a part a somethin',

because I didn't

have the strength.

So at that time, I joined

the community gang.

And,

from there on out,

my life has kinda

like been really...

You

don't have to explain it,

- Thank you.

Because we've all

kind of lived it.

We've all been in this

nightmare together,

from these beginnings

that seemed so innocent,

to what brings us here today.

What is my role?

Is to be a participant

in the recovery.

That's my role, and to

encourage others to be engaged

in a recovery, and to be aware

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