Around a table people work together as “violence interrupters."

Members and organizers at LIFE Camp responded after 10 people were shot outside of Amazura Concert Hall at a memorial for Taearion Mungo, a victim of gun violence.


What You Need To Know

  • LIFE Camp CEO Erica Ford and her team work to provide resources for youth involved in violence

  • 10 people were shot outside of Amazura Concert Hall Wednesday night at a memorial for Taearion Mungo, a victim of gun violence

  • LIFE Camp provides resources including social events and career preparation
  • Delano Martin now helps people transition away from violence, saying he was involved in gang violence when he was younger 

Also Thursday, a 17-year-old was shot in the abdomen while walking toward Dr. Susan S McKinney Secondary School for the Arts. He was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

Erica Ford is the CEO of LIFE Camp, which is geared to help people move away from violence.

“So many people are full of trauma, so many people are full of hate, so many people are full of rage. So we have to shift that and we need to be on top of the response,” Ford said.

She said parents need to get involved in the lives of their children.

“You’ve got to take them out of the space of idle mind and then you’ve got to deal with the parent as well. You have to be intentional and involved in what your young kid is doing,” Ford said.

LIFE Camp also says it’s important for youth to have obligation. The organization provides structure, from events to career training.

“It’s about peace, it’s about love, it’s about transformation,” Ford said.

Delano Martin knows what it takes to transition away from violence. He said he was in a gang until he met Ford. Now he coaches people on how to turn their lives around.

“At the end of the day a lot of these things can be talked about, a lot of the people who decide to do crimes just want to be heard,” Martin, a violence disrupter supervisor, said.

The NYPD is investigating if either incident is gang-related and/or related to one another.