>> my family, a part of them, they get killed. and i don't like to see people get killed. those people that died, that was really close.. i miss them like i don't really going to -- i can't really be on them. >> in 2015, nearly 3,000 people

were shot in chicago. that's an average of one person every three hours. more than any other city in the country. what do the streets mean to you? >> they shoot people too much. >> have you seen that a lot? >> yes. >> how old were you the first time you heard of someone getting killed? >> seven. >> in the neighborhood, well, it's not civilized at all. everybody day you got to duck and dive from bullets. people actually have shootouts. >> life in chicago's poorest neighborhoods can sometimes feel like a war zone. >> where did you get shot? >> in the stomach, the back and my butt. and my leg. >> and you know which streets

not to walk down. >> always, anything happen to her. >> there's no place to be safe. >> children are growing up without a baseline of safety. what are the long term impacts of this continuous exposure to violence and trauma? >> every day is hard, waking up knowing, you know, somebody know i'll probably get shot today. >> do you feel safe in this neighborhood? >> no. >> why not? >> because it's a lot of killing going on. >> fault lines is in chicago to examine the psychological toll of gun violence on kids, in some of america's most dangerous and neglected communities. >> there are a lot of other little girls like you who have experienced this. we're on our way to the south

austin neighborhood in chicago's west side. someone has just been shot. people at the scene tell us a young man named ta risk ris tarn has been shot. >> you got to pray first pray for your kids, pray for them to come back home to you. >> tonight four shootings. >> four shootings just tonight, in this neighborhood? >> next door. >> blew up, that's our youtube, you don't want to get youtube but you are used to it. a lot of killings here.

>> tarante died that night. he was 20 years old. just in the past hour, loud reports, two gun shots, three heard near 80 ellis. ambulance took a gunshot victim to mt. s sinai. this is just in the past hour. the body of the young man just killed was brought here to mt. sinai. >> i'm angry. i'm tired. all our black young men, especially our baby babies, they haven't really got a chance to grow up. >> how does this affect the younger kids in your family?

>> they have a lot of questions. >> what do you tell them? >> well right now i have a nine-year-old so therefore i want to get back home. i have to explain to her that the bad guy came up and shot someone. so now this is enough things she has to go through. >> yes, 20 years old. 20. 5-11-99. he wasn't even 20. >> every day of my life. the babies miss their daddy, three damn kids, they got to miss having a father every day, their father gets killed!

>> chicago has struggled or the years to stem the ongoing violence but the impact goes far beyond the lives that are lost. for kids, growing up around this violence can have a profound and long lasting effect on their health and outlook on life. >> for a lot of our young people their development is really shaped around traw trauma and sd around violence. >> we went to one of the top children's hospitals to beet with bradley stowback. he last a program to deal with the psychological result of violence. >> many of our patients would meet the diagnostic definition

of ptsd. it is not the only issue. young people who have been through ongoing repeated extreme violence, the main thing is that it's not single episode kind of thing. it's ongoing so the violence and the threat of violence is ever-present. ♪ turn it around turn it around snoatsd. >> whe♪ >> when you consider that this year we've had 2500 people shot, and then you consider all of the loved ones, all of the witnesses that there are literally thousands and thousands of people who are directly affected by this every day who are not offered any kind of support or help to deal with it. ♪ >> three nights after his murder, tarante's family gather

at the gas station where he was shot. they don't know who killed him or exactly why. two years ago, tarante's cousin was killed on this same corner. his family says they're tired of burying their loved ones. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> are those the marbles you picked up from there? >> yes. >> how many did you get? >> a lot. >> y'all are holding up pretty well. it's just been a few days. >> when i was the day he passed, i was shocked. >> you were shocked? you never expected something like this, right? >> not my son, he was only 24.

>> do you feel safe in this neighborhood? >> no, not over here. >> no? why not? >> because it's dangerous. >> yeah, what does that mean? >> people getting killed down here. and i don't want to get killed. >> what is was it like going back to that same place today when you were singing? >> i was hurt. i was crying. so that's why he got killed, that's why. >> that's a place to dance. >> he loved to dance. >> that's the gas right there the gas station? >> i showed you the video, he was right there dancing.

♪ >> yeah. >> is that how you like to remember him? >> yes. >> what's the hardest part about this for you? >> not hearing a voice and how he died. >> i'm on the scene at 105317 north avenue. probably going to be a crime lab job. >> a few streets away another night we heard another man had been killed. >> 4573, we will need a crime lab. >> this whole place is a crime scene now. looks like the body's already been moved. swung might bsomeone might be ie

hospital. >> gun shot fired in the area. >> one after another, it seemed like a never ending stream of shootings. >> male 16 shot in the lower back. >> not one night goes by in chicago without gun fire. >> shots fired. >> people loved him. teachers loved him. >> we were walking the river looking for him. i knew something was really really wrong. >> all hell broke lose. >> people were saying that we were terrorists. >> how are you providing a cover for your brother to do this? >> we saw the evil side of the social media take off.

>> the violence here is unpredictable and shootings don't only happen in the dark of night. a young man was shot and killed on this residential corner just minutes before we arrived at the scene. people here blame petty fights between gangs for much of the violence and say it's only getting more indiscriminate. shootings are most frequent in the poorest and underresourced parts of chicago, where local schools have been shut down, juvenile arrest is high, and we are thought far from inglewood, a notoriously dangerous at the end of the day. >> you're not expecting it to happen don't hope for things to happen, afraid things won't. >> 15-year-old rosalyn collins comes to this boxing gym to

escape the violence on her streets. crushers club is a safe haven for local kids. >> how many people who you know have gotten shot? >> hmm plenty. can't count them. >> and how many people have died because of gun violence? >> plenty. >> that you know? is that pretty normal around here? >> yes. like if you don't know somebody that's gotten shot or that's gotten killed, you're weird or something. you got to know someone who has gotten killed. everyone has a shirt that says "rest in peace" on it. i have dreams that happen in reality don't really happen. like in my dreams people can't get shot, you can't get shot

it's impossible, i don't know why it is. >> people have superpowers? >> no, you just can't get shot, there's no guns, they're not spooking people. flog influencing the kids to hold a gun. most of them are not real gang bangers, they just claim a gang because they have to, you live on that block, you are automatically in that gang, if you don't gang bang, you get killed so why not gang bang? there's no one trying to help them, trying to get them off the streets, giving them any alternative. every day they wake up, knowing, my brother is going to die, when they are going to the gafng they're nogangthey're not lookig but love and respect, they get that. >> do you think there's anything that can change the situation? >> no. i feel like we've been ignored

for so long. >> shots fired. >> we are in one of the most economically and raciall racialy segregated places in the united states. they have no community, no access to the services that people in other communities have. >> dr. stolback's program reaches 250 kids per year. >> when you are constantly exposed to violence or feel like you're constantly under threat, the parts of the brain that are involved in learning get shut off. and what happens is the surviving brain takes over.

and so they're constantly in survival mode. there are functions, it's not like they're not functioning, it is they're functioning with very little sense of a future, very little hope. one of the manifestations of that is this almost chaotic violence that we're seeing. >> 17-year-old dialante lee has beewas shot five times. he has been extra vigilant sins then. >> since then. >> i stop let them walk ahead of me. >> he just finished playing basketball at the park he says when a man randomly approached him. >> couple of seconds later he was reaching for something, i

don't know what it was, so just froze up. he just started shooting. once he started shooting i just ran. as i was running they was hitting me. i just kept going. i was asking myself like why is this happening to me? but the best thing for me to do i just didn't panic, i was just trying to breathe and stay calm. >> what were you most worried about at that moment? >> dying, really. but i wasn't -- i don't give up that easy. so from being through something like this, can't really affect you're a man, you think so many things that a person my age really shouldn't be thinking about. this is real scary. >> what was the scariest part for you? >> i mean jumping up in the middle of the night cold sweats, me yelling and screaming. it was like just hearing the

sound of the gun, you being shot over and over. it's like it's scary. it really bothers you. >> you could actually hear the sound? >> yeah. like after you wake up from it, like your ears are just ringing. >> diamante has worked with counselors at cook county's strzier hospital to deal with the symptoms of posttraumatic stress. but he doesn't always feel safe. >> i stepped in the spot i was shot and i'm lying no, i ain't coming back here no more. i had cold chills, shaking, made me thinking about that night. i got to go. >> just by being there? >> yeah. >> so you don't go to that park anymore? >> no. >> when a person has been through a lot of trauma, almost anything can be a trigger, and

by a trigger, that means that it's something that's going to bring the trauma to the forefront. whether consciously or unconsciously. if people are essentially walking around in survival mode all of the time, and they haven't been given the support that they need to develop the capacity to regulate their own emotions and behavior adequately, then they are at any moment ready to go off. and do something. all that matters is, what do i need to do now to 75? to survive? >> mdma helps with the

therapeutic connection. >> exclusive access to the... >> our fears are dancing between us. >> techknows team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is what innovation looks like. >>...can affect and surprise us. >> i feel like we're making an impact. >> awesome. >> techknow, where technology meets humanity. >> only on al jazeera america.

♪ ♪ >> living in survival mode can have grave consequence even for 81 children. joseph cook experienced this firsthand. he said he started carrying a gun when he was 12 years old. >> gang bang, carrying guns,

whole lot, be on the corners, whole lot of stuff. >> why did you have guns? >> protect myself. i almost lost my life like three times. i got stabbed trying to break a fight up. i got stabbed three times. i been shot at. i thought i was going to die because i had the hat on the car, this dude kept shooting kept shooting and kept shooting and there was no way, he was going to stop. >> did you ever shoot at soak when you had a gun? >> yes. >> why do you think there is so much violence here? this isn't like other parts of chicago. why does this keep happening? >> a lot of people. a lot of people ability got hope, they ain't working or it's hard for them to get a job so if they ain't got no job i'm just going to start robbing people or

just start shooting people, on account of i ain't got anything to live for. or their losses, all type of reasons. >> joseph says too many youth like him grow up feeling like they have to carry guns for protection and could easily end up in prison or dead. >> i started paying attention like why a lot of people get killed for, why a lot of people get locked up for. i told myself i want to change while i still got a chance. >> how did you feel when you decided to stop carrying a gun? >> so good, got something to live for now. >> many of our young people will tell us if something doesn't change, somebody is going to get hurt. they don't want to hurt people. but they're walking around with rage. they're walking around with incredible pain.

loss, sadness. grief. that is so tightly contained all the time. that when something triggers it, it can blow with tremendous a of force. we've got to figure out ways to help them with the righteous rage and greefs tha grief that l day to day, in ways that are destructive to them and the people around them. >> yea that i walk through valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil, thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, thou preparest the

table before me. >> hundreds of people came to say good-bye to tarante atkinson, the young man who was shot and killed at the corner gas station. tress police are still investigating his murder. but his family's unsure they will ever get any answers. last year, less than 50% of murders in chicago were solved. and residents say they have little trust in the chicago police or the authorities. these are communities under constant stress. living in conditions of neglect and danger unknown to wealthier parts of the city. as the shootings continue, another generation is coming of age, traumatized and engulfed by violence, with few resources to support them.

>> what would you say to the people who are doing the killings? >> don't do that. it's a part of somebody's family. you feel like how people get dead, so don't do that to us. >> you think they understand that for every -- >> no. >> -- person is killed there's like a little girl like you who misses them? >> no, they don't understand. because if they would, they would stop. i just don't want them to nobody else to get killed. >> what in god's name makes you think that you can handle stress, anxiety, depression... post-traumatic stress? >> the closest i got was sitting in my truck, gun in hand. >> who will save america's heroes? >> i wish he'd been able to talk to somebody. >> "faultlines". >> what do we want? >> al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today the will be arrested.

>> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning, investigative series. >> thanks for joining us on "america tonight." i'm joie chen. the steady drip drip drip of robs for the water supply in flint, michigan has turned into a flood. the latest. a boil order because of a main break. who is going to pay or the those fixes and on top of everything else, increasing evidence that the city's water now known to be contaminated with lead, may have