(phone ringing)
- [Wes] Hello?
- Hey, Wes, what's going on, man.
It's Karamo.
- [Wes] What's going on, man?
- I was thinking of a way
that I could help you,
but I need your blessing.
- [Wes] It's been granted.
- That night is critical
in who you are as a man,
but there's still little holes
for you that I'm noticing
that, like, have to get fixed
and get plugged.
So I've set up an opportunity
for Wesley to meet Maurice,
the man who shot him.
(instrumental music)
- [Wesley] I became a bad boy
at a young age.
I remember wanting to fit in,
wanting to look like everybody else.
And being inspired and motivated
by the only role models I could,
which were drug dealers in my community.
I was gonna live my life
as reckless as I could
because I knew that eventually
I was gonna die
or I was gonna go to jail.
(police sirens)
Five days after my 24th birthday
I was shot multiple times
in my abdomen.
- They turned to me
and said
he's paralyzed
from the waist down.
That was the worst day of my life.
Two years of bedridden,
just up a couple of hours a day.
- I cried so much.
I remember many nights
of just beating my legs up
because I just thought they were worthless.
I hated myself.
You gotta always think, like,
you'll be looking at a man
that tried to take your life.
I just don't want my emotions
to get over me.
- Like, people assume that forgiveness
is a destination,
not realizing it's a journey
that continues on throughout your life.
- Right.
I feel like I can handle it.
(rhythmic music)
(background chatter)
What's up with it man?
- How's it going.
- [Karamo] Karamo.
- [Maurice] Karamo?
- [Karamo] Yeah. - [Maurice] Maurice.
- [Karamo] Nice to meet you, man.
- [Maurice] You too.
- First of all, thank you again
for you being here.
Thank you for you being willing to do this.
I just am here to help you all navigate this coversation,
but this is your time
to sort of ask whatever questions, get clarity.
You kind of don't know why
and what happened that night.
- That day, I only seen you for a second.
I was literally walking back to my car leaving.
We never had, like, a conversation
or, like, an altercation.
- You don't believe that
(clears throat)
you've done anything to warrant what happened?
- No, like, I mean, I just know who I was before.
- I don't want to go back and forth
to make it, like, a whose fault this was,
whose fault that was.
I don't want to do that.
To get you kind of clarity
on my perspective of what happened.
When I get there, I see your partner
and your woman at the time,
or whatever like that arguing.
- So I understand that my actions,
and my feelings, and my emotions
probably took the best of me that day.
But it was still more or less, like,
why you?
- I see you bucking up to my cousin,
you know what I'm saying.
And he told me that you had a pistol.
Your partner, I see his pistol.
He got a 30-round magazine hanging out.
And I seen him back and forth going.
And I am like, "Damn all this over a bitch."
That's when you started coming over towards me.
- Yeah
- You know how the streets are,
you know, I can't see yours.
In my mind you got the pistol too.
I'm like, "Man look,
"I'm not going for that.
"I can't, you know what I'm saying,
"risk me getting shot or getting,"
you know what I'm saying, so
what happened, happened.
- It's crazy to hear it now.
We lived in a place where we all strap.
You know, we don't care as long as we trying
to protect somebody that we love.
I could understand why you did what you did.
If it was the other way around,
I probably would react the same way you did.
- I didn't imagine you seeing it from that prospective.
Like, it was no malice in my heart.
- [Karamo] Wes, do you need an apology.
- I don't think it's necessary for an apology.
I would prefer not you to feel sorry.
I thank you
for me being, like, in this position.
I don't even feel bad energy from you.
- That's crazy.
I was thinking the same thing.
I'm like, "Man."
- I'm actually empowered by the life I was given that day.
I've had a lot of time to grow.
- I'm definitely in a better space,
you know, just striving to be the man I know I can be.
- We are two black men
and we're doing something that
they don't want us to do
and that is forgive each other,
but also uplift each other.
I found purpose in my situation
and it seems like you did too.
- I just plan on doing great things from here on out.
Hopefully we can both do some great things.
- Hey man, I see we can do it probably together, man.
- It's real.
- I agree with you.
I have a feeling this is just the beginning
of a bigger purpose
that I don't even think y'all knew.
- Hey man, I'm with it.
- Appreciate you, bro. - Thank you, bro.
- My son. - I appreciate you.
- [Wes] Wow.
- [Karamo] How was that, good?
- Wow.
It was really really liberating
and I'm, like, having all these mixed emotions.
Like, I looked at a man that shot me
and told him, "Thank you."
- Mm.
- And now I can be the Wesley Hamilton
that I always wanted to be.
- [Karomo] Yeah.
(both laughing)