>> byron: tonight, street soldiers. >> it don't have to be violence everywhere, we can talk it out! >> byron: people known as violence interrupters putting their lives on the line trying to prevent shootings in some of america's most dangerous neighborhoods. >> it's scary out there i'm not going to lie. >> byron: using their real-life

experience to navigate life-or-death situations. paying the price at times. >> i never thought i'd see something like that. >> byron: the difference they make. what the government is now doing to try to help. >> i was invited to the white house. i was like, why don't you pull up to the ghetto? >> byron: this special edition of "nightline," "street soldiers," will be right back. j! (thinking: eddie, no frasier, frank... frank?) fred! how are you?! fred... fuel up to 7 brain health indicators, including your memory. join the neuriva brain health challenge. okay, so here's my most requested hack for stubborn odors. you'll need vinegar, a large salad bowl and... oh, hi! have you tried new tide fabric rinse? it works after your detergent to fight deep odors 3 times better than detergent alone. i love that. try new tide fabric rinse.

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>> byron: good evening. thank you for joining us. as we all know, much of the world is at war. tonight we go to a conflict zone very close to home. those pockets of america where crime is high and poverty higher. we meet the soldiers who serve. and some who die. so where are we headed? >> we're going to donte's burial ground. >> byron: for paly houston, a date she dreaded for three years. >> i never thought that i would see your name on something like this.

i'm sorry i didn't have the courage till this day to come here. i thought i had enough time with my brother. i just hope that other people realize how precious life is. >> byron: donte barksdale was a big brother to much of baltimore. technically called a violent interrupter. he was a street soldier of sorts who shows up in urban battlefields when few others can or will. no kevlar, no weapon, just his reputation and his word. >> he had to get in the middle of conflicts and beefs, you know? he may have stepped right into the conflict at the point in time when they were deciding to shoot someone. >> byron: in this, my hometown, when a barksdale talks, people listen. >> barksdale is five out of seven towers in the terrace. >> just a gangster, i suppose.

>> byron: in the hit hbo series "the wire," the name barksdale struck fear. a drug kingpin inspired by nathan bodie barksdale, dante's unc uncle. dante dabbled in the family business. a convicted drug dealer who returned home a changed man. he helped found a grassroots organization aimed at keeping teens off drugs and out of jail. >> it brought out the very best in him. he was very inventive with his outreach. >> i challenge you guys to be as unique. >> safe street became his ministry of sorts? >> yes, absolutely. >> byron: it was church on a shoestring. baltimore police and the mayor's office recognized safe streets' have you to mediate conflicts or do go where a politician dare not venture. . governments didn't want to back it.

but then fate would raise its profile. the murder of george floyd. >> hands up, don't shoot! hands up, don't shoot! >> suddenly programs like safe streets were welcome and funded across the country. chicago, the city that pioneered this work, investing at least $50 million since 2021. new york city putting in $86 million. now cities large and small tapping into president biden's "american rescue plan." wichita, kansas, investing $1.27 million. >> violence intervention is about using tested messages, community leaders, community members, to directly work with people who are the most likely to commit gun crimes, and it works. >> byron: congress put up $250 million to the doj in 2022 through the bipartisan "safer communities act." >> we know these programs can work. and it really helps provide us a

complement to law enforcement that can help really engage with high-risk folks and help change their lives. >> byron: it's change that komtds at a cost. not simply in dollars. and no one knows that better than paly houston. i don't see pictures of your brother, why? >> grief. lessening the impact of that grief. >> byron: dante barksdale was 46 when he was murdered. shot and killed three years ago. >> six shots to his head. two to the torso. >> byron: and it was someone in the course of his safe streets work, someone he tried to help at some point? >> yes. safe streets was there for the people that didn't want to come to the police that were afraid to because they were afraid for their well-beg. >> byron: they would say, i don't go to the police, but i'll go to you, a intervene? >> yes. >> byron: safe streets didn't

just have street cred, it had statistical success. a 2023 report found safe streets reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings by an average of 23%. dante did it unarmed. no vest. no security. those moments so intense, even pulling out a cell phone to record could break the fragile peace. >> he always told me that, you know, if any event -- if something happened to him, just know that he became a man in mind, body, and spirit. >> byron: barksdale was the first of three safe streets interrupters murdered in one year. >> my friend, my brother, i remember going to his funeral like this a days. because i couldn't believe that he was snatched from us. >> byron: k. bain is new york city's barksdale. similar backstory. ever been shot at? >> yeah. >> byron: ever shoot anybody? >> absolutely. >> this is what community looks like!

this is what community looks like! >> byron: he does the work in new york city in the larging project housing in america, home to hip-hop legend knocks and mob d. ♪ >> byron: he's the founder and executive director of community capacity development, or ccd. >> most of the time our phone rings and people say, i'm about to go kill somebody. that's a cry for help. >> byron: really? people have called -- >> people don't stop calling us. >> byron: the queensbridge housing has a long history of violence. that changed when ccd arrived. in 2017, an astonishing 365 days straight, not a single shooting. today, shootings here are as rare as rainbows. >> we're on the hill. this is the heart. the heart of the housing development. >> byron: we heard the talk, saw the swagger up close. men and women who seemed able to see around corners.

they knew the rhythm and the resonance, and the residents know them. >> we're out here every day canvassing, interacting with the community, conversation and dialogue. we know before things pop off that they're going to happen. >> byron: here, the goats don't have rings, they have records. you were in prison for 44 years i've been home going on seven years. >> byron: why do this? >> i never want to see -- another teenager go to prison. i never want to see them kill a human, and i never want to see them get punished and go to prison. they have no idea of what's waiting for them. >> byron: show of hands if you've lost a family member to violence? show of hands if you've ever been incarcerated?

>> i'm going through my trauma some night, thinking i'm going to go to jail because i'm going to sell drugs again. i call one of them, and they always help me with a solution. i appreciate my team for that. without the solution, i'd probably be in jail. >> byron: no one does this job purely for the paycheck. how much money do people make? >> it's not that much money. our goal right now at ccd is to start $50,000 annual salary. >> byron: one of the biggest advocates of the group, president joe biden. >> i was invited to the white house. i said, why don't you pull up to the ghetto? >> the only thing they have to arm them is respect for human dignity and a belief that if we work together, outcomes will be magnificent. >> byron: but not everyone who does this work can get an audience with the president. when we come back -- >> we need to know who's driving that black suburban. >> byron: interrupting vie hence in the capital of the country.

what happens when violent interrupters are pushed to the brink? >> he just gave up. didn't want it. it's too much for him. >> byron: stay with us. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when i wanted to see results fast, rinvoq delivered rapid symptom relief and helped leave bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc tried to slow me down... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc caused damage rinvoq came through by visibly repairing my colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief... lasting steroid-free remission... ...and the chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check, check, and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant.

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♪ ♪ >> byron: jackson, mississippi. buckle of the bible belt. but on the south side, the buckle has scars. churches and crime compete for congregants. >> it was a young lady, 15 years

old, got shot about 15 times. >> byron: for frederick womack, heartache is a hymn he knows well. born and raised here, he's executive director of "operation good," a community outreach and violence interruption group he founded ten years ago. a decorated army veteran who's seen blood she had, abroad and at home. >> violence can happen any minute here in jackson. the same way it was in iraq. >> byron: jackson has one of the highest murder rates in the nation. police here are relying on "operation good" to bridge the gap with the community constantly on edge. as resident jean smith talks to our cameras -- >> you hear a gunshot now. >> byron: gunshots in the distance. >> i'm sorry, i'm panicking. gunshots make me go into panic mode. >> byron: it reminds her of the night she lost her husband, tracy, shot and killed on their porch. >> right now, i depend on "operation good."

for security. every woman on this street is, like, a single mom. >> byron: in jackson, violence has one relentless rival, poverty. >> you see what they said up there? >> interstate blood bank? >> that's the only economy they provide for my people. sell their blood. >> byron: for many, basic resources like clean drinking water mostly comes from bottles, not taps, after the city's water system failed in 2022. since 2010, nearly 30,000 people have left jackson. a predominantly black city and overwhelmingly poor. 1 in 4 live below the federal poverty line. >> i have young men now who done turn 18, they feel lost, hopelessness leads to despair. despair leads to acting out. those things lead to violent tendencies such as, "i ain't

nothing too to have lose." >> byron: a formula for failure. they hit the streets with an antidote, hope. >> used to be drug addicts living in these houses, so we cleaned it up. now the kids come out and play. >> byron: the workers in jackson, mississippi, face risks as severe as any city in america. the southern saying "lipstick on a pig" is different. >> we go around, we clean the streets up. making your environment look good. because waking up every day seeing a bad environment going to make you feel bad. >> i used to be have a very violent at one point, you know what i'm saying? very. >> very. >> i know how it is to be out there firsthand. >> it's different when you was front line with the bad guys and

they like, "him and her doing this now? oh, maybe we can do this too." >> byron: darkness brings out its own dangers. like his contemporaries across the country, frederick patrols without weapons. >> we don't want to escalate a situation. so it's scary out here, i'm not going to lie. >> byron: homicides dropped here in 2023, down to 109 from the previous year, a significant drop from the record high of 155 reported in 2021. police here tell abc news "operation good" has been essential to lowering the homicide rate in jackson. but for all their success, the group is richer in faith than they are in funding. their budget nowhere near that of their big-city counterparts. >> this building here was left abandoned. they were vandalized, destroyed. >> byron: "operation good" approaches this abandoned school from a local pastor, making it

their headquarters. >> we came a long way, really. it's going to take quite an amount to get everything up to par. >> byron: the unsafe conditions forced them to do most of their work outside, adding stress to an already difficult job that can only offer a full-time staff about $15 an hour. >> the burnout part of the work that we do is protect a real critical thing. because a lot of times, they build up emotion, they build up stress. >> byron: on this day, one "operation good" team member quits. >> he just gave up this morning. just -- it's too much for him, know what i'm saying? everybody can't do this job. he been doing it for a long time. >> i pray that everybody will go out and do their violence interruption work, do it with a pureness of heart. because you do it any other, it's not going to be successful. >> byron: "operation good" has

existed entirely by donations so far. the "safe communities act" is intended to help groups like frederick's. >> this funding is so important. not only is it the largest federal investment in cvi programs, it's also a signal that the government is in there and we need to work together across sectors as a community to build up this cvi infrastr infrastructure. >> byron: in baltimore, that investment from the doj is paying dividends. one beneficiary, "operation respond" run by dante johnson, a protege of donte barksdale. >> we all one of the first to receive this funding and we're proud of that. >> byron: they aren't mediating or de-escalating conflicts. instead, they're trying to address the rood causes of violence. his mobile unit drives around southeast baltimore staffed with a crisis management team. >> we're running the people every day that been edged out,

reprimanded, shot three or four times, never seen -- can you imagine getting shot, and they say "we got a therapist for you"? >> byron: demons die hard. donte's old organization hit with a reality check. >> this morning the fbi raided safe streets office. >> byron: the fbi raiding one of safe street's ten locations, as well as that site's supervisor's home, initially charging him with illegal possession of ammunition. that charge was dropped earlier this month. doj does not fund safe streets but says, headlines like these should not take away from the positives of cvi work. >> despite the occasional actions of the few, we strongly believe community violence interventions will help build a stronger community safety net. >> reporter: donte's inspiration to keep going, his former safe street colleague, dante barksdale, better known

acetater. >> tater is a hero in every good sense of the world. "operation respond" is a seed of what tater represents. >> byron: a seed watered with their brother's blood, and paly houston believes it continues to bear good fruit. >> dante's message was the most gangster [ bleep ] in the world is forgiveness. >> byron: could you forgive the person who shot and killed your brother? >> i already have, because so many remarkable things have come ever since then. just as many lives that we see lost, you cannot count the lives that were saved. it would probably be much more without safe streets and brothers like mine. sail throughf historic cities and unforgettable scenery with viking. unpack once and get closer to iconic landmarks, local life and cultural treasures.

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♪ >> byron: finally, as we heard tonight, the late dante barksdale said to men and women he met in conflict, people rangry and bent on revenge, "the most gangster thing in the world is forgiveness." ministers and therapists have told us for years, hurt people hurt people. this evening, we've been reminded, healed people also heal people. that's "nightline" for this evening. thank you to the good people of baltimore and jackson and new york who allowed us in. and thanks for the company, america. good night.