The Lifesaver

"There is nothing wrong with getting an education and working a 9-to-5 and doing what you have to do," Williams says. "Basically, you hear so much when you are growing up -- you hear things and you see things growing up in the neighborhood that make you ask yourself: Is this what life is all about? There is more things out there, but it is on you whether you see those things or you go to try and see those things."

Shawn Richard is now reworking the Project Redirect syllabus and screening applicants for a second, larger version of the program. His plan is to have two simultaneous classes of 20 students enrolled for 10 to 12 weeks, starting in March. This time, the program is expected to cost more than half a million dollars. Though the budget is still pending approval from the Mayor's Office, Dwayne Jones believes it's just a matter of details.

James Sanders

Richard addresses a Brothers Against Guns "Street Talk" session.

James Sanders

Shawn Richard, founder of Brothers Against Guns and Project Redirect.

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• Tracy Richard
• Shawn Richard
• Jason Williams
• Gang Violence
• Crime

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"I'm not trying to be anyone's savior," Richard says. "What I am trying to do is deliver my brother's message and my message to these young folks. My brother's message is this: This is the end result for everyone who is caught up. Look where he at. He dead. He in the ground."

Young men like Jason Williams take other lessons from Richard and his program.

"Honestly, they were like my brothers," Williams says of his fellow classmates. "I get their back, and they have my back, because we're up against something that is way bigger than me and you. We're up against society, and people stereotyping us, and people -- in other programs like this -- promising us things that they don't deliver.

"Eventually, it's about those [programs] that are real and fake," Williams continues. "You set your own fate. Are you really doing things that are real, to help those around you, or are you doing things to help yourself?"

And beyond Shawn Richard, Williams speaks of another father figure.

He raises his clasped hands, his fingers knitted as if to pray, and then aims his index fingers skyward, the way a child might imitate pointing a gun. "You cannot fool him," he says, pointing. "In the end, you have to answer to him."