BAY MINETTE — By age 13, Augustin Lizama had had his hand blown off by the blast from a shotgun and had witnessed the horrific death of a friend.

Lizama and fellow Homeboy Industries Inc. member, Kenneth Bragg, brought a message of destruction, warning and hope to residents Thursday night at the John F. Rhodes Civic Center as they presented a gang prevention program.

The program was sponsored by the Bay Minette Police Department's Project Safe Neighborhood Committee, Volunteers of America and Light of the Village Ministries in Prichard, Ala.

"I'll never forget what I saw," Lizama said, retelling the story of a gang shootout that left one of his friends dead. "We had been cruising when we saw members of a rival gang on the sidewalk. We started throwing gang signs at them, then we stopped and got out.

"We started walking toward them with the intention of shooting them, but they pulled their guns first and started shooting at us. We jumped back in the car and (the driver) and I were ok, but I looked in the back seat and there was a trickle of blood running down the seat."

Lizama said the gory scene in the back seat is forever etched in his mind.

"There were bullet holes in his head and his brains were on the seat," he said. Lizama was 13.

Lizama's life story did not start that way, though he came from a broken home and a life of poverty.

Lizama said daily routine included picking roaches out of the cereal before eating it and dealing with an overcrowded apartment with holes in the walls. Walks to school revealed shootings, gang members hanging out on the street, drinking, smoking and carrying guns, and drug users shooting up.

"As a child you had to adapt to it," he said.

Despite the hardships, Lizama was an honor roll student who consistently received awards and recognitions. But the accomplishments went unrecognized at home, where Lizama said his mother was too tired and too busy to notice.

"I would show her my report card and she would fling it across the room and say 'get that out of my face,'" Lizama said.

The final push came when the school Lizama had so successfully navigated held a sixth grade graduation ceremony.

"All the other families were there. No one was there taking pictures of me, no one was there telling me good job, telling me to keep it up. The other kids even started making fun of me.

"I remember walking home crying. At that point I stopped caring about school," he said. "I just wanted to be accepted, be loved, be recognized."

Unfortunately, Lizama sought that acceptance and recognition from members of his older brother's gang.

"I started wearing baggy pants, shaving my head, getting tattoos, carrying knives and hanging out with my brother's gang. They would pass the beer to me, they would pass the cigarettes to me," he said.

After the incident with his arm, Lizama said he "jumped in" the gang.

"What I mean by jumping in, the gang members form a circle around you and you get beat up for a minute and 20 seconds," he said. "I spent a whole month in the hospital recovering."

But in his mind he was in a family now.

"When I got out (of the hospital) I went all out. I started carrying guns, shooting people - you have to earn your stripes in a gang," he said.

Lizama was a frequent visitor to the hospital. In yet another incident, a rival gang caught Lizama alone and advanced on him.

"I started telling them what gang I was in. If you were in a gang and you denied you were, it was disrespecting your gang, and they would kill you.

"It was either die by friends or die by rival gang. It was that easy to die," he said.

Lizama began running toward the area where his gang was gathered, shouting his gang affiliation in an attempt to attract their attention.

"They came running but the other gang caught up to me first," he said. Lizama said he received two blows to the head from a crowbar and another guy stabbed him with an ice pick.

"He pulled it out and was about to stab me again when my gang got there, but it had already caused internal bleeding," he said.

"I couldn't live anymore. I was afraid to go anywhere. I woke up afraid someone was outside my door ready to shoot me," he said.

In 1995 Lizama was arrested and charged with murder and five attempted murders. He said he was not the perpetrator, but said in a gang you do not tell on other gang members, you simply take the fall.

"If you do, you're not only putting your own life in jeopardy, but your family members as well," he said.

It was during this time that Augustin met a Jesuit Priest by the name of Father Greg Boyle. Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, Inc., and has made it his mission to rescue men and women, boys and girls from the destructive and deadly gang life.

Homeboy Industries Inc. is an organization that provides jobs and opportunities for former gang members and teaches them skills to make them productive members of society.

"Father Boyle visited me in jail. He started talking to me about compassion and love. I thought 'how can this Irish White guy say he loves me when my own mom won't say that,'" he said.

But Boyle showed Lizama through his unwavering support and consistent guidance and encouragement.

"He started telling me he wished he had a son like me and that he wanted to help me. He started praying with me. Two years and two months later I started getting it," he said.

Before Boyle could get a strong enough hold on Lizama's heart, the teen was released from jail and went back to his life in the gang.

At the same time a friend of Lizama's was serving time in prison.

"My friend was facing life in prison. His little brother was trying to get in the gang and he begged me not to let his little brother join," Lizama said. "Two months later I got (the little brother) in our gang."

At 15, that same little brother killed someone and was facing life in prison.

Not long after, Lizama found himself behind bars again.

"I had been working, buying guns and taking ones they would give to me. The cops did a probation sweep and found a .382 and 82 rounds of ammunition in my house," he said.

By this time, Lizama had two children and it was them that finally made him realize what he was doing. He called Boyle and told him he was ready to get out.

Lizama was facing four years, with the possibility of eight because of California's three-strike law. But his attorney struck a deal with the D.A.'s office and Lizama was offered 16 months.

"I wanted to do cartwheels," he said. "I knew God was with me at that time."

But tragedy struck again, when Lizama’s younger brother was killed in 2003. That incident, he said, clenched his resolve to leave that life behind completely.

"I saw what it did to my mother, my sister, my brothers and his girlfriend, but most of all I saw his daughter. His daughter was going to grow up without a father," Lizama said.

When the killer went to trial, Lizama was in the courtroom, hoping for the death penalty - until the man spoke.

"He started crying. He said 'I'm going to pay for what I did, the only thing I ask is that the family will one day forgive me,'" Lizama said.

"I realized then that I had asked God for forgiveness, I was going to have to forgive him. It was the only way I could move on with my life, it was the only way I could heal," he said.

Lizama and Bragg said they have now dedicated their lives to preventing kids from getting into gangs and helping those who are in gangs to get out.

"We will go to any extent necessary so we can steer these kids away from that lifestyle," Lizama said.

He said getting out of the gang wasn't as hard as people might believe, because of his mindset.

"If I was willing to die for the wrong reasons, then I was willing to die for the right reasons. My life is in God's hands," he said.

The two told parents to first and foremost take every opportunity to spend time with their children, encourage and love them, no matter how busy or tired.

Secondly, they said parents should pay attention to how their child is dressing, who they are hanging out with, how they are talking and are they staying out late.

"The worst thing you can do is pretend it's not happening. You have to approach it and let them know you love them," Lizama said.

They encouraged young girls to take pride in themselves and not give in to pressure.

"In the gang the girls had to sleep with 10 different guys. Then they'd get beat because 10 more wanted it. They were just there to be passed around, and who got stuck pregnant with five other babies on welfare," Bragg said.

"That's what I'm seeing in Prichard. Girls having babies. You have to protect yourself, love yourself. Go to college, don't get stuck with a baby at 15, or two babies at 16.”