There’s a phrase Kevin Dolphin and his team at Breaking the Chainz like to use when they’re working with young people in the city of Harrisburg: Life doesn’t come with an eraser.
“Once you do or say something,” Dolphin said. “You can’t take it back, especially if you kill someone…One bad decision can destroy your life.”
It’s a message that Dolphin and Lamont Jones, the vice president at Breaking the Chainz, have tried to impart to hundreds of young people over the past five years through their programs in Dauphin County inside schools and with juvenile offenders.
The message doesn’t always get through right away. But the seed gets planted. And trusting relationships can grow with Dolphin, Jones or Richard Brown and Barry Coleman, who are prevention/intervention specialists at Breaking the Chainz.
Those relationships came into play Sunday when several young people reached out to the men after a 14-year-old boy was shot in the head at 14th and Market streets in Harrisburg.
The young people didn’t know what to do. They had been at the scene, thinking they were going to watch a fist fight. Instead, police said, Levi Deshazo-Danner pulled a gun and fired toward several people, hitting the teenager in the head. It’s unknown if the teen will survive.
The youths said they didn’t know Deshazo-Danner, or anyone at 14th and Market for that matter, had a gun at the planned fight. The shooting caught them just as surprised as anyone else.
“They came to us for advice, on how to deal with the situation that they got themselves in,” Dolphin said. “These are the very situations we are working seven days a week to try to prevent.”
Jones reached out to Police Commissioner Thomas Carter to find a resolution. Police found no criminal actions by them after talking to witnesses and reviewing video surveillance of the shooting from a nearby business. The surveillance video showed Deshazo-Danner, 22, as the shooter, according to court records.
Police filed a warrant for his arrest Sunday night charging him with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and being a felon in possession of a handgun. He had three prior felony theft convictions.
On Monday morning, police arrested Deshazo-Danner, at a shopping center without incident.
“We want to continue to build that relationship with the chief, so police can gain more of that trust out in the community,” Dolphin said. “We are that bridge between the community and police. We spent all day Sunday dealing with these young men.”
Breaking the Chainz provides educational and intervention programs in Dauphin County. The leaders of the community group are (left to right) Lamont Jones, Kevin Dolphin, Richard Brown and Barry Coleman. Not pictured is Harvey Matthews and Ron Parson.
The work that Breaking the Chainz is doing in the city is invaluable, Carter said.
“The kids trust them,” he said. “These are men who have walked down that same road so they have a lot of credibility. The community and police can work together and we worked together to make this happen.”
At it turns out, police believe a post on social media triggered the dispute that led to the planned fist fight. No punches were thrown, however, police Capt. Gabriel Olivera said.
Olivera said he could not release additional details regarding what prompted the shooting and how many shots were fired. Court records, however, noted that “multiple bullets” were fired at a group of people.
Police have not yet recovered the gun used in the shooting, Olivera said.
One of the messages Breaking the Chainz tries to hammer home to the students in their programs, Dolphin said: Don’t let yourself get mixed up in nonsense disputes because you don’t know how it’s going to turn out.
Deshazo-Danner had not been in Breaking the Chainz’ programs but Dolphin said he, Jones, Brown and Coleman wish he had been.
“Things may have taken another course with the information he would have been provided,” Dolphin said.
That’s why young people need to really think before they act, he said.
“One of the things we hone in on is: ‘You have rational and irrational thoughts,” he said. “Don’t let irrational thoughts control your actions because then this is the type of stuff that happens.”
Dolphin said the situation was resolved without any additional violence, which was critical.
“Our main concern was that another young man didn’t lose his life to the streets,” Dolphin said, “Or as a result of police having to use deadly force when coming to get them.”
Dolphin said he hopes to expand his work in the city through additional educational programs, including one aimed at families, with assistance from Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick.
“We want to start some community forums to bring families in after they’ve been touched by violence,” he said.
Breaking the Chainz already works in prisons and juvenile centers to help offenders redirect their lives once they are released. And they’ve worked as a bridge between the community and police during high profile incidents, including a fatal police shooting and a fatal crash after a police chase ended.
But ideally, Dolphin said, his group would like to get the attention of more young people before they make a life-altering mistake.
“It’s important to teach them decision-making skills and social skills,” he said. “A lot of youth act on impulse. But once it’s done, you can’t take it back.”
