In his own words, 15-year-old *Leon says he used to be “real bad, doing crazy stuff” including some gang activity and ended up being shot at. “I was in the house, in the living room … all you could hear was gunshots and one came through the window and hit me in the face … it was bad. I was in the hospital for a little while. There’s a new generation out here that goes where the gangs go. Whatever gang you in you are about what they are.”
Leon, who said he began to carry a gun for his own protection after people were picking on him, was eventually arrested with the weapon and was placed on house arrest. But now that is behind him as he plans to fulfill a dream he’s had since elementary school, he said.
“I want to be in the Air Force building airplanes,” he said. “I always wanted to do that since third grade. I used to make airplanes out of paper and watch them glide.”…