The Interrupters

A man was murdered overnight on Chicago's South Side.

Police say it happened execution style in the ...

It was a violent night in Chicago.

Nine people were shot in just five hours, one person died.

The victims were all men...

124 people have been killed so far this year, one per day--

about the number of Americans killed during the same period

in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are three bullet holes in his home fired by...

Gregory Robinson is the 28th Chicago public school student

killed this school year...

...died last Friday, shot in the back

as he tried to shield two young children...

Sadly, in another sign of the times,

members of CeaseFire were also at today's memorial service,

hoping to stop any thoughts of retaliation for Greg's murder.

Twelve- and 13-year-olds are walking around

with bulletproof vests on up under their clothes.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation...

All right, let's close up.

Everybody that's in the meeting, this is serious now, okay?

We're in a crisis mode, and we need people

to step up this table and go over and beyond.

Guys are getting killed for just anything.

Have there been any conflicts mediated on the front end?

From last week to this week?

Two guys was arguing.

One guy threatened to blow the other guy's wig back.

I got him to calm down, tell him he didn't shoot you,

he was just talking.

We stopped that one on the front end.

I have the dirty dozen at the table.

We've always had outreach workers,

but the violence was not necessarily going down

at that point.

So in the year 2004,

we began a new concept called the violence interrupters.

Most of the violence interrupters

come from the hierarchy in some of these gangs.

Because can't no anybody come in

and tell a guy to put his gun down.

The violence interrupters have one goal in mind:

to stop killings.

They're not trying to dismantle gangs.

What they're trying to do is save a life.

I might get shot.

Ice cold.

After what happened a week and a half ago, nobody's been changed.

Nobody's come through shooting.

Ameena.

What happened?

By the time we got out there, the fight had just ended.

The cops pulled up and pulled off.

Y'all missed that shit.

The cops pulled up and they left.

They're scared.

They're scared of the community.

One group of guys said the young man threatened

that he had a gun, and that he was gonna kill him.

So he started fighting

and ended up getting his teeth knocked out.

He needs to go to a doctor.

So you want to go to the emergency room?

Let's take him, come on.

Cobe got him off location.

And I asked Cobe to take him to the hospital.

: These bitch-ass niggas...

I'm gonna pop when I see 'em.

The block got quiet, and I'm looking down the street,

and here comes the sisters of the guy

that got his tooth knocked out.

They came to defend their brother's honor.

With a butcher knife.

The sister calls one of the guys a bitch ass, punk ass.

The little four- and five-year-old baby

was doing the same thing.

I'm a knock your bitch ass out.

Run up, then.

You going to never knock me out!

You respecting yourself.

She ain't respecting herself.

But still.

The story about sticks and stones may break your bones

but words can never hurt you?

Words'll get you killed.

All of the sudden, the sister ran up with a piece of concrete.

One of the girls was about to stab one of the guys.

Her cousin picked up the butcher knife.

Dee, who's in the heat of the moment,

that adrenaline was still going, that, "I'm gonna fuck them up.

I'm gonna get them back."

She just hit my man with a rock.

83rd and Wolcott.

I picked up Dee.

I said you need to get off the block for a minute.

He was out of line.

He was out of pocket.

He was very disrespectful.

And I know how many people I got out here

that are willing to take care of business.

We fittin' to do this and all this and that.

His family kept calling him.

You know, what's taking you so long

so we can come back over there and set that block off.

'Cause if his family would have came to get him...

maybe it would have been a death behind it.

I know you got some damn fools for family.

About you.

And... and they ready over here.

Because I know you just come home.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

You ain't going no problem in going back.

I saw that you, wasn't, you know, you was walking away,

to defend you and your family.

But, and I really, man...

Man, I thank you.

I mean, for real.

For real, that's what gangster is about right there.

I... I definitely don't want to go back.

Wasn't that gangster?

Didn't them girls square up like Joe Frazier?

Shoot.

I took him over to his cousin's house.

We were talking about how he got hit.

And he tumbled over.

Like a cartoon character.

Woo!

So if you get them to laugh at themselves,

give them a moment to pause,

and think about really how crazy and funny that it was,

find that soft spot in that person.

Not weak, but soft spot.

And you just ride on that.

Ameena Matthews as a violence interrupter,

she's the golden girl.

She gets in where a lot of guys can't get in.

She knows how to talk to these high-risk young men.

And a lot of guys that I know that have

a lot of murder in they background, they respect her.

So, he all right?

The life that I lived, being in shootouts,

looking at the devil face to face...

And I look at my sisters and my brothers today, you know,

that was once me.

Her father was Jeff Fort,

one of the biggest gang leaders in the history of Chicago

outside of Al Capone.

Fort is serving a life sentence

for allegedly conspiring with Bolivians

to commit acts of terrorism here in the United States.

I understand the fact that we got polices in here.

There is not going to be any killing without killing.

Jeff Fort stood up against the police.

He was definitely a feared and very revered man

in his community.

But she never lived off that name.

Ameena made her own name on the streets.

Growing up, it wasn't his influence that influenced me

to do anything.

You know, my dad was not there.

When I was conceived, he was 16 years old.

So when I got older, I was in a mob with a bunch of guys,

and I was like the only female that was the lieutenant.

That took care of the business.

It was drug selling, hustling.

You know, one crew was on the pimping tip.

One crew was on the stickup tip.

Drugs, guns, party, fun.

That was it.

My dad wasn't around, and...

when he got wind of that I was a part of that team,

he was kind of hurt.

But he couldn't be too hurt.

Because look at what precedent that he started.

Ceasefire.

Ceasefire.

Ceasefire.

Stop the shooting.

Stop the killing.

I said stop it right now.

Stop it right now.

Young man got shot 22 times.

13 years old.

That's sad.

This is a state of emergency.

This is what the war zone looks like.

We're sick and tired of our babies being killed.

This man here lost a son.

We can't be quiet no more.

My son has been killed right here

and we're standing here with cameras right here

where my son been slain at?

Come on now.

I don't think that's right.

We could have did this somewhere else.

I have to sit here and try to say something to you guys.

Who does that?

Would you say that there's still a code of silence