Ex-gang members give life lessons

PRICHARD, Ala. (WALA) - On Tuesday, local children learned a lesson they won't get in any textbook. A former gang member spoke to kids about the dangers of life on the streets.

Children are impressionable. Day-by-day they learn about the world around them, and the world they can create for themselves.

But just outside the bustling city of Mobile, kids are living in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of Alabama Village, where crime and drugs are rampant. One man paid a visit to show these kids what their lives are at risk of becoming.

"No right child ever joins a gang. A person who joins a gang is because they're in need of something, and they want to belong in something," former Los Angeles gang member Agustin Lizama said.

Growing up in the streets of Los Angeles, Lizama needed to belong somewhere. He had a single mother and no support, so he joined a gang. But he didn't gain much. In fact, he lost more. He lost friends, his childhood, and his hand.

"A rival gang came up to me, they pulled up on us, that guy got out and he shot once and he hit me in the arm which pretty much exploded my hand," Lizama said.

He held up his left arm, where his hand will be forever missing.

"All I had left was half my thumb, because everything was shattered to pieces," he recalled.

After 13 years of the gang lifestyle, Lizama left and now tours the country spreading a message of hope, that the gang world is not worth it.

On Tuesday, Lizama and another ex-gang member spent time with Prichard kids at the Light of the Village.

The ministry reaches out to at-risk youth.

"It's got a lot of good kids and lot of potential too. That's what we're trying to tap into, let the kids know there are people who care about them," the founder of Light of the Village John Eads said.

Lizama has been to Alabama Village nine times, and he is shocked by the conditions there.

"I come from poverty, I really do. I grew up in a house that was roach-infested, all that. I came from the ghetto. Our ghettos in Los Angeles is nothing compared to the ghettos these kids have to experience," he said.

Arguably, these kids could be labeled as statistics, troublemakers who grow up into a life of poverty and destruction. But these two men will stop at nothing to show them a better way.

The former gang members will hold a public forum at the Bay Minette civic center on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.