Bang! Alijah Clark heard a loud noise come from the bleachers and froze. He was hundreds of miles from the streets where gunshots are a regular part of his life, but it didn’t matter. The trauma which caused his reaction was unavoidable. He has heard those violent sounds often as a kid growing up in Camden, and often the end result has been death.
A 15–year-old boy gunned down in front of the corner store. A high school teammate shot as he sat in a barber shop. All told, Clark figures more than a dozen friends and acquaintances have died on the streets around his home.