DETROIT – Why do people kill?
The answer is complicated, but he hopes his story will changes lives as it did his.
"When the car door opened, I just turned and fired what turned out to be four fatal shots," said James White, who has been convicted of murder.
In Detroit, 228 people have lost their lives to violence this year, while 850 non-fatal shootings have already been reported. As police work to stop the violence, one man is answering the question: Why?
Did White ever feel sorry for taking a life?
"Initially I didn't," White said. "Initially I felt angry and I felt resentful because I legitimately felt threatened."
White said that's why he shot and killed a man when he was only 19 years old. After running away from an abusive home life at age 14, he lived on the streets of Detroit.
An argument ended with him being shot three times. That moment would forever change his life.
"No matter what I was doing, when I was eating, sleeping, using the bathroom, like I had a gun with me everywhere I went," White said.
"Because I didn't want anybody else to shoot or harm me."
Does White consider himself a murderer?
"No, not at all," he said. "I'm a man that committed the act of murder."
The murder happened in July of 1991 at around 3 a.m. in the Brightmoor neighborhood in Detroit. White was a drug dealer about to make a large sale of crack cocaine to a regular customer. That sale would never happen.
"He has two guys that I don't know with him," White said. "We're talking about the transaction and I'm like, 'You know, I don't know who these guys is.' That escalated into an argument. I had a pistol on me and I was turning to walk away and I just remember the sudden movement of the car door opening."
White felt threatened in that moment. His family had been plagued by gun violence.
"In my family alone there have been at least seven males that have been shot, you know?" White said. "You're more about survival. It's not like you done the premeditated thought of here's what the outcome is going to be other than what it is in that moment."
Now, 24 years later, White goes by the name Shaka Senghor. But no amount of time will let him forget those final moments.
Senghor walked through the scene of the crime with Evrod, explaining that he's a changed man now. Still, the feelings always haunt him.
"It's a solemn experience being here, because that night changed so many lives," Senghor said.
Including his own. Senghor served 19 years behind bars, but now shares his story with teens all over the country. He hopes it will save two types of lives: the ones staring at the end of a gun and the ones with their fingers on the triggers.
"You never want to carry the burden of taking someone else's life," Senghor said. "Don't make a life decision based on a 30-second emotion."
One of the ways to stop the violence, Senghor believes, is to give teens peer-to-peer mentors who come from where they come from.
For more information on where Senghor will be speaking, visit his official website.