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Stories about kids, guns and how to stop the violence. Precious Lives, created by 371 Productions, is a 2-year, 100-part weekly radio series about gun violence and young people in the Milwaukee area. The series applies a public health lens to each story to help listeners understand the full scope of the problem: who are the victims and the shooters; how are the weapons obtained; and what can we change about the environment that contributes to violence in Milwaukee?

#049 Precious Lives: Before He Pulled the Trigger

Courtesy of Ken Brown, Westcare Wisconsin
Damien Smith and James Ferguson offered Grover Ferguson resources a few weeks before he received a 50 year sentences in federal prison for a carjacking, shooting.

Grover Ferguson turned 18, just before he received a 50 year sentence in federal prison. He shot a 53 year old woman three times in the face. And stole her car. He told officers that he didn’t want to walk. And since he had a gun, he didn’t need to. He says got scared and pulled the trigger.

These crimes leave families scarred physically and emotionally. That pain links the families of the victims and the perpetrators. But Grover’s cousin, James Ferguson saw a version of how it happened, that strangers don’t know. Starting with the day Grover was born.

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