From Behind Bars to a Full-Time Job

At a time when job losses are the norm in Los Angeles, this felon is now holding down a full-time job.

His name is Derrick Brown, and he’s a Caribbean-American youth who is currently working for a private bus company in South Los Angeles. He plans on attending college to take business courses, and has dreams of owning a home some day.

Sounds like a standard story until you consider that Brown is working to overcome his recent incarceration for shooting a young man. He has moved ahead to the sheer joy of watching his children jumping, hollering and laughing at play, as they did on a recent afternoon in a pink-and-blue birthday bounce house.

“Life is wonderful—I am free,” Brown says.

Brown says he’s also back on track with his full-time job, feeling lucky for a second chance that has given him “new lease on life.”

It’s the first time in awhile that the 23-year-old could make those claims. He’s fresh from five months in five months in the Wayside correctional facility on the northern edge of Los Angeles County. That’s where he landed after a trip to the city of Inglewood—south of Los Angeles—ended in a shooting. Brown says went to Inglewood with family members to take care of some personal business. The trouble started when he spotted someone he knew on the street—a young man he’d had run-ins with before.

Brown immediately predicted trouble and tried to head away from the guy. They clashed, though, first in argument that led to harsh words. Brown says he feared for his life and wanted to protect his family, so he drew a gun—a weapon purchased from a licensed dealer—and fired away.

The shooting left his nemesis with bullet wounds in his chest. Neither Brown nor any of is sustained any injuries.

Brown fled the scene and faced arrest several weeks later. The courts apparently gave weight to Brown’s account, and he was released after his relatively short sentence in February 2008.

Brown is now one year into a five-year probation period—so far, so good.
Would he carry a gun again?

“No, my life has changed,” he says. “I was hanging with the wrong set of people, and now I am spending more time with my family and kids.”

The tough economy recently led Brown recently since moved back with his parents. A year since his release from jail, he credits his Belize-born parents for helping him to get through a difficult time in his life. His mom says her son understands that he has to live by the laws of the land. He now has a better understanding of dealing with challenges. She adds that her son isn’t the only troubled youngster to find help at the Browns’ home—the family is known in their community for helping folks in need.

The names in this story have been changed to protect identities.