Next Step program aims to help gun violence victims avoid retaliation

“Anybody who gets hurt, their first thought is to get revenge somehow or some way, and that was my first thought. It was in my mind at the time,” Morgan said.

But someone interrupted those thoughts, a stranger who approached him in the hospital, a lifelong educator named Larry Burgess. He told WCCO how he stops people from retaliating: “Showing them love, showing them another way.”

Burgess is part of a cutting-edge violence prevention program which is a joint effort by the city of Minneapolis, HCMC and North Memorial called Next Step.