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By Leiloni De Gruy, Staff Writer -- 

WATTS — Day or night, it wasn’t unusual to see gang intervention worker Calvin Hodges sharing words of wisdom with at-risk youth living in the tough Nickerson Gardens housing project. It is work he had been doing for more than 11 years — and he was good at it.

“When it’s two o’clock in the morning and the calls came out, he was out there in the alleys with the brothers with the AKs,” said Michael Cummings, founder of We Care Outreach Ministries. “He would promote peace, he was stopping the violence, he was doing his job. He never didn’t want to go.”

Ben Owens, director of Unity Collaborative, met Hodges five years ago at the Watts Labor Community Committee building where they held their first Cease Fire breakfast.

At the start of the event, roughly 350 Crips — former and active — surrounded the building and lined up on neighboring streets. The message was “you came in but you can’t leave,” said Owens. “We were pinned down in here.”

Someone suggested calling Hodges. After arriving, it took a matter of minutes for him to defuse the situation. Everyone was free to go.

On Oct. 30, Hodges was patrolling Nickerson Gardens — as he did every day — looking for young people to reach. He noticed a 16-year-old boy who “was in the zone, probably about to do anything — there is no telling, depending on what influence comes,” said Hodges, a high-risk intervention specialist with Kush Inc., a non-profit contracted by the city to administer intervention services in Watts.

As he got closer, he noticed that it was a client. They had offered the young man a job and assigned him a case worker who was hands-on. They were making progress, but things had recently taken a turn for the worse. His brother had been sentenced to jail for 88 years to life, and there were other issues at home.

“He could have gone straight to the left easily,” said the father of five. “So, I went up to him and I gave him a lot of attention.”

The two began making eye contact, which grew as their conversation deepened. This was unusual for Hodges, he said, because he had never been so wrapped up in a person before. But “I felt I was really reaching him,” he said, “I was reaching his heart.”

It was in that moment that Hodges diverted his attention away from his surroundings, and it was that very action that left him unprepared for what happened next.

“I usually watch my surroundings, I observe and pay attention but I was concentrating on the man I was trying to reach,” he said. “I was making eye-to-eye contact so much that I lost my flank for the first time.”

Multiple shots rang out and the assailants’ footsteps grew louder. Hodges looked over his shoulder, but could not get a good view of the shooters. As he turned back around to assess the young man he had been mentoring, he saw he had been shot in the leg. The boy froze.

“That’s when I grabbed him and turned my back to shield him,” he said. “I pushed him to safety and told him to stay down.”

The remaining shots were aimed directly at Hodges, who was shot three times. One bullet grazed his left cheek and another shot hit his arm. The last, which could have been fatal, penetrated his neck, stopping near his spine. Hodges has some use of his upper body, but now has none below the waist.

“When I was shot in the neck, my nervous system just went out,” he said. “My legs went down. I was stuck.”

He just laid there “in communion with God,” he said, until a group of residents from the area came out and pulled him to safety.

Those who are not in such risky fields and professions often wonder, Why risk one’s life for another? For Hodges, the answer is simple: pure instinct.

“It’s my thought process. I teach that we have to provide security for our kids, our women and elders and we have to take charge no matter how violent the situation is,” he said. “I acted out of impulse, I didn’t have to think about it, I just did it. It was my reaction.”

In the days that followed, police arrested two teenagers — the alleged shooter and alleged gun supplier — said to be connected to the shooting. A third suspect may or may not face charges. Their identities have not been released because of their ages, but all are known Watts residents.

After all is said and done, Hodges is not angry at the shooters. Rather, he is frustrated by the mindset that produced their actions.

“He is a better man than a whole lot of men, because he said, ‘I forgive them, I don’t want any retaliation, I want to keep going forward with what I was doing,’” said gang interventionist worker Teeida Townsend of Maximum Force Enterprises. “That’s a man to me.”

Though his attackers were apprehended, the incident still struck chords in the community — some positive, some negative. According to various reports, there have been at least five people shot and killed in Nickerson Gardens since Nov. 22. It is believed to be the result of a dispute within the Bounty Hunters gang.

On his behalf, gang interventionists are stepping up their efforts in the area. “His incident alone put us in shock,” said Rico Martin, a gang interventionist in Watts who has worked for Unity One since 1992. “For him not to be hands-on, it’s a little setback but I think he’s instilled in a lot of people to pick up where he left off. His tragedy has woken us up to a lot more things. … It makes you think. You have to always be on your toes doing this work.” He should know: Martin was shot four times with an AK-47 while on duty in 2006.

Donny Joubert, who has been doing this work for roughly 25 years, puts “God first when we go out there,” he said. “There is nothing you can change when stuff like this happens inside these communities. But at the same time we’ve been thinking how do we move forward.

“We have to keep our eyes peeled,” he added. “We are not going to allow anybody to come up on us like that. But we’re not going to give up, we’re not even giving up on the people who did this to him. We pray for them.”

Hodges is currently at work on a set of strategies and tips on how gang interventionists can better protect themselves when they are out on duty. “The best thing we can do is prepare ourselves with a greater sense of security and prepare for the worst and have some type of plan for a situation like that,” he said. “It’s hard to say, though, because there is really no level of preparation that can prepare you for something that happens right then and there, but there are things that can give you a greater chance of surviving.”

He was tight-lipped about some elements of his tip sheet — mainly because it is still in the works — but suggests that gang interventionists wear bulletproof vests while on duty. Tasers, he feels, are a non-lethal but effective tool that provide an options for self-defense. He hopes to collaborate with city officials to get these things in place for certified intervention workers.

This is the more technical aspect. Hodges says what gang interventionists can do now is use their surroundings — such as walls and benches — to protect their bodies in case a violent situation occurs. No interventionist, he said, should walk into any situation without an exit strategy. In addition, he said, they should constantly think about the possibilities and dangers ahead of time, and consider what the best course of action would be. Hodges plans to make this component a part of their training.

“I probably could have thought about my surroundings,” he said, “and used them better to provide cover.”

For those working with subjects they do not know or in areas they are less familiar with, he said, they should be more observant. By that, he means, assessing subjects’ facial expressions and body language, and knowing where their hands are placed at all times.

This might have helped Ronald “Looney” Barron, 40, a Mansfield Crips gang member-turned-interventionist who was shot and killed Sunday in the 5000 block of West Pico Boulevard, after trying to stop a tagger from putting graffiti on a nearby wall. He had served throughout South Los Angeles under the organization Amer-I-Can, which was founded by football legend Jim Brown.

“This just reinforces some of the dangers we as gang interventionists face,” said Owens in response to Barron’s death.

More than anything, Hodges hopes “to see something come out of this that can impact change. And I’m willing to be an instrument if that means change.”