they run. children with autism - and the

impulses that can lead them to bolt towards danger. >> i could hear the front door close. i knew something was wrong. i ran downstairs, out the front door screaming her name, screaming her name and couldn't find her. >> reporter: also, the shots rang out. the victim survived. at the start of what looked like another hot summer of violence, gunshot. >> what would you say at the end of the day was the total bill from start until new? >> almost like $10 million. >> reporter: $10 million. >> there was a lot of drugs, machinery, home health care. it was expensive. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. the numbers can never truly tell the whole story, but have sent up an early alert about violence and the summer ahead.

gun violence. what is more alarming, how concentrated the research was. baltimore had an uptick after a few better years, and chicago - again chicago, a dozen gunned down over the weekend. it was the worst violence in over a decade there. many more survived the shootings, but at what price. tonight's sara hoy with a look at the high cost, and how in some ways we all pay the price. >> it was july 27th, 2005. it was a hot day. i got paid that day. it was a great day. some guys was outside of my building asking me questions about the job. we were talking. the shots rang out.

>> reporter: derek o-wednesday was 21 -- owens was 21 when a stranger shot him twice. >> the worst pain i felt. i couldn't make a sound. it was like hot lava. i felt i was burning. >> reporter: doctors confirmed his worst nightmare, he was paralysed. he would never walk again. >> i was 21, i felt i was on top of my game, i was almost a child again. waited on hand and foot. >> reporter: what comes to gun violence what usually gets attention are those that die. often overlooked are those that live and the costs that go with it. gunshot wounds are the third leading cause of spinal cord injuries primarily affecting long uninsured me. owens was uninsured at the time of the shooting, leaving the hospital to pick up the tab, with a

remainder needed to be covered by his disability and medicaid benefits. >> if you add it up. what would you say was the total bill from start to now? >> looking like - almost like $10 million. $10 million. it was accumulated almost like $2 million worth of bills. it was back and fourth. i lost a major orgap, i was back and forth on a lot of drugs and machinery. workers. >> reporter: the doctor, director of the trauma center at the medical center, the same hospital where owens was taken. she said the majority of people shot live. >> if you look at the numbers from chicago, roughly one fifth of the patients who were shot are homicides. but there's a large population

of individuals who survived gunshot wounds, and beyond the injuries, many patients have long-term health problems. that equals long-term costs. a university of chicago crime lab study put the costs nationwide at $100 billion a year. shootings in the windy city costing $2.5 billion, or 2500 per household. >> it's not uncommon for us to have a patient with a total hospital bill over a million. >> reporter: over a million. >> and this that situation the patient has no insurance, it's hospital. >> reporter: that's over a million for the first year. added to that court costs, mental health care and unemployment. by app estimate annual firearm injuries cost $645 per gun in

america. and it's not who you think that is paying the price. >> there's a certain belief out there that all trauma patients deserve being shot. that they are all gang bankers. it's not true. what we find is the majority of patients, gangs, and the shooting itself did not necessarily revolve around gang-related incidents. the majority are victims. >> michael was in the northern suburbs far from the upper city, when he heard the window crack. >> it felt like someone punched me in my left shoulder in the back. i knew it wasn't just a pump, because it knocked me over, and i slumped over the wheel. >> reporter: the 57-year-old bullet. thug. i'm a teacher. i'm thinking "why would someone

want to shoot me?", you know. i guess i figured out it was just an act of random violence. >> reporter: so you were wrong place, wrong time. >> yes. obviously i was just driving along in my car, you know. bullet came through the driver's side back window. and it hit me in the back. >> that bullet would leave brown without the use of his arms or legs, changing his life forever. >> i don't know whether i'll ever be able to teach again or work again, you know. you are left in a state of wonderment, you know, about your own financial >> reporter: brown's health insurance paid for hospitalisation and strenuous physical therapy. >> my wife was working full time. she had to leave her job. it's affected her tremendously. she and her sons and these are

my primary caregivers. if 20 people have been shot, probably 200, 300 people have been affected. in my case sometimes i lay up in the bed and i think about, which i have a lot of time to think about how this one bullet, you know, has changed so many lives brown had taught high school maths for 34 years, and pastor for 17 at the church he founded with his wife. losing his place at the palpit may be the biggest cost of all. how hard has it been tore you not to be able to minister? >> i get really emotional when i talk about it. because i ministry is my life, and to not be able to stand there and do what god called me to do.

wrenching. >> it's been nearly a decade since he was shot. he lives with his sister, that is not wheelchair accessible. he insists on doing most things him. every day he is reminded of the violence. >> yes, i see a lot of guys in this neighbourhood in a wheelchair. >> owens volunteers for a programme teaching wheelchair victims to adjust to their life. >> i don't want no one else to feel the way i felt when i sat in a house looking out the window. and we need to talk early and let them know to be prepared for as opposed to letting them go through the struggle on their own and let them feel like no one is there with them. on a recent afternoon, he's showing a friend to drive. >> when i go in the house, i

talk how i'm talking now and tell them what it is, that it's going to be okay, but it takes time. it will take time, it will be hard, it's not easy, and you that. >> reporter: owen says the wheelchair is not defining him. >> we are not defined. it's a time and place, it will pass and change. it is something we have to go through, we are experiencing it. the sun shall sign again. it will. >> but the price for the bullet that cut him done is one he's still paying. >> "america tonight"s sara hoy is with us. you first met the two gentlemen last summer. talk to us about what is going on in chicago today. >> well,

as of end of may, there has been 1,000 shootings, and 154 murders. >> that's a few, considering other populations the size of new york city, for example, compared to that population or chicago. >> that's right. put a different way. despite that chicago has one-third the population of new york city, they make up for 20% of the mrders. so there is something going on. as we gear up for summer we know this too well, that the shootings will increase, just because when it's warm, we see over. >> you talk about, as you say in your report, a lot of focus goes to those who die in gunviolence. and there are some 12,000 americans murdered by guns every year, it's more than in other developed countries, and that really doesn't represent the whole stories, as you tell us, these people - their lives are

forever changed. forever affected by a moment with a gun. >> absolutely. like the gentleman we met in the piece, their lives have been flipped upside down. 12,000 mrders. let's talk about the survivors. let's talk in 2013, 84,000 people were shot and lived. that means more people like derek. more people like mr brown. this is something that people look at, but don't think about. that may be people die. yes, that is tragic. there are far more who survived and whose lives are changed. sara hoy. next, another city understand siege, an upsurge of violence and charm city, and what might be behind baltimore's blues. later, on the run, children living with autism and parents desperate attempts to keep them

from bolting away. >> they did everywhere. hot on the website now, who is fit to be a parent. should people be held to a higher standard at aljazeera.com/americatonight.

s we fast-forward to a city feeling the heat of summer violence, baltimore on edge after the death of freddie gray, who suffered a fatal injury apparently while in police custody has seen an upsurge in shootings. "america tonight"s adam may knows the streets and police, and asked what is behind it. >> ultimately, i think the police are not being aggressive.

they are afraid if they make a mistake they'll be charged. >> reporter: baltimore residents face frustrations after zero tolerance. arrest rates skyrocketed as police conducted random stop and frisk searches. >> it was over-used, i never agreed with zero tolerance, i never agreed with that. a lot of people were getting charged for sitting on the front steps and drinking a bottle of beer. it's abuse. you can't abuse people. >> seems like there's a fine line between aggressive policing which can be proactive, and on the flipside if it is too trust in police. >> if stop and frisk is done properly, it can harm nobody as long as the officer don't just go up to corners and start patting people count.

anyone can make an arrest, but you can't carry it through to get a conviction. >> on top of pressure for numbers, the retired lieutenant blames police training for the distrust between police and baltimore citizens. until a few years ago tabling worked at the academy. >> i had a guy at the academy. know what he said to me "you worry too much about the law." >> reporter: pressure to produce arrest numbers, over aggressive policing, poor legal training, a bad recipe, according to table, decades in the making, leading to baltimore today. sky rocketing crime, and a police department demoralized fast-forward to the surge in crime in charm city. three murders add to may's homicide tally making it 43. making it the most violent month in 40 years in baltimore. it's a bad trend line, by this

time last year the homicide toll had not hit triple digits. this killed. we continue our focus on america up in arms wednesday, on "america tonight". a look behind the headlines in philadelphia, the city of brotherly love - where a young black map is more likely to -- black man is more likely to be shot and killed than he would be in a war zone. how philly is fighting back, wednesday on "america tonight". next, when everything was not safe. >> i was always with her. >> reporter: you wanted to do everything to keep her safe. >> yes children living with autism and the impulses that put them at risk. >> we've been driving for miles into what should be pristine rain forrest. >> devastated by gold mining... >> gold that may have come at

the price of human rights, pristine forests and clean water. >> indigenous communities under threat. >> this not a peruvian problem this is a world problem. >> and the world wide campaign to clean up dirty gold. >> i really didn't want a symbol of love between me and my husband to be associated with such atrocities only on al jazeera america

ica [ ♪ music ♪ ] every year we see increases in the number of people diagnosed with autism. yet so much is a mystery. what causes it. why some who live with it can communicate freely than others. whether it can or should be cured. we do know that autism is not a fatal diagnosis, but the mortality rate with people with autism is almost twice as high as the rest of the population. how could that be? why is the government not willing to do more to protect people living with autism from themselves.

>> reporter: in her brief life, savannah martin reached beyond the experts expectations. >> match, flower. good looking that time. >> reporter: learnt more than doctors ever thought she would. >> let's count. >> when savannah was diagnosed with autism at two, she told her mother not to expect too much. >> she'll never look at you, talk to you or say "i love you." that was hard. thankfully i had amazing people in my life that said "don't give up. never give up, you fight." >> reporter: intensive therapy help, so did her mother's nearly constant attention. >> i did everything i could for her. i thought she was safe. i was always with her. >> reporter: you wanted to do everything to keep her safe. morning. >> reporter: that morning.

beth remembers a bright, sunny sunday. savannah was in her church dress when beth put a bowl of noodles in the microwave. >> she loves noodles. she liked it watch the noodles spin in the microwave. kids in autism like that. >> reporter: four minutes, enough for the mum with a toddler and preteen, 4 minutes, just enough to answer the call of nature. by the time i flushed the toilet i heard the front door closed and i knew something was wrong. panic hit. i ran downstairs. i screamed her name, couldn't find her anywhere. >> reporter: savannah and her 2-year-old brother tommy who doesn't have a disability didn't respond. they got past a barbed wire fence into a bond, not 50 yards from the home.

tommy had been wearing a bicycle helmet that kept his head above water and kept him alive. the desperate mother couldn't breathe life back into savannah. >> i just - i - it was just - i ... >> reporter: tried to keep her. >> i got to keep her alive. i've got to do this. and i did that until the mts came. i kept screaming "you have to say her, you have to say her." >> reporter: savannah's story is a case of what experts call eloping, wondering for balting. >> they wait for a chance to bolt. for my son, it's certain sounds. if you are unprepared for that, you may not catch him in time. second. >> in an instant. it's a flight or fright response, and the unpredictability and the impulsivity of it dangerous. laurie knows that first happened.

connor was seven when he bolted out of school. >> it was a wake up call for us. kids with autism - they are fascinated with certain topics and for him it was highway exit signs. he headed on foot to the highway to find his favourite exit sign. >> reporter: a driver that saw connor got him to safety, but it led mcel roy to track how common it is. >> i'm lori mack ill wane ... >> reporter: and what may save more children. kids with autism at this moment could make a break for it, happiness every day, every week. week. >> 35%. >> and 23% try to wonder multiple times per day. >> reporter: researchers at the kennedy craig pursuit found half

bolt around age 4, up to eight times as the unaffected siblings most often. they are drawn to water. >> most wantedering cases are not reported, those that are, we track them and put them in here. the yellow lines indicate that the child died. we see a lot of drowning deaths, deaths. >> reporter: in one of nation's closely followed bolter cases, 14-year-old queptins left his school, captured on security cameras. searchers failed to track a path to the east river, where his later. it was devastating news for his stepbrother who searched along side hundreds of volunteers. >> being in the area is very rough for me. the same way we were out here tirelessly for months and months.

it hurt a lot to know the ending was so tragic. >> i ask you bon... >> avonte's case was a rallying cry. lori and other parents say beg lawmakers for small fixes, tracking bracelets, fences - saying it could go a long way in saving lives. >> when you have a child who cannot speak, who does not understand danger or ways to keep themselves safe, they are the most vulnerable people living in the country today, and we thank you for any support you can give us. >> support the federal government provides for those with alzhiemer's or dementia, which is why lori is on capitol hill. pleading for funds. kids with autism are nottelagible for the sill -- not

eligible for silver others. >> some kids are afraid of canines, sirens or helicopters, and they may hide. not understanding the loss, that someone is helping them. >> reporter: compounding the pain, suspicion about the bolts. >> a lot of our parents are afraid to dial 911 for fear of being accused of neglect. we had to go out and encourage parents to call 911 if their child is missing. >> reporter: days after her daughter died in her arms, child protective services concluded that it was beth's fault. you were negligent. negligence. >> but you were the mother with her every minute. >> i didn't take her to the bathroom with he. me. i didn't take the three children

to the bathroom with me. negligence. >> yes. >> reporter: in the end she was cleared, but it is a hurt that will never heel, even after the family's joy at hannah's birth, a little girl that would be savannah's sister. >> i can't help but thinking, where would she be now, she'd beat the odds and talk to me and tell me that day she left me. she as so capable. i don't know where life would have taken her. a great hope never forgotten. that's "america tonight". tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/"america tonight". talk to us on twitter or facebook, come back, we'll have more of "america tonight"

sepp blatter steps down at fifa president. we look at the men who may replace him at head of global football. ♪ ♪ you are watching al jazerra live from our headquarters in doha. also coming up. iraq's prime minister asks his allies for more help to beat isil. u.s. president obama program signs in to law legislation that limits the collection of private phone data. and a man with a plan, greece's mime perimeter heading to