To the person I harmed, I can only guess how difficult it is for you to hear from me.

I imagine to be the last person you want to hear from.

I was wrong on so many levels and I sincerely apologize.

I deeply regret and am ashamed of my behavior with that hurtful evening.

This is Tommy Shakur Ross and this apology took him many months to write.

After many decades of avoiding the question of whether he should write it at all.

In out of date passes without me thinking of the hurt I'm responsible for.

I never want to feel this way again nor do I want to cause anyone else to suffer the way you have.

In 1985 Shakur was 19 years old and active in a gang in Los Angeles.

I started a crime-free that elects me sexually assaulting women

and it can eliminate it into a gang-related murder.

It happened in a liquor store.

When I was inside, I went to the car I was in and when the person came outside the liquor store, I approached him and I shot him five times.

Four days after the murder that I committed, my mother and little brother were killed in retaliation.

For the murder he committed, Shakur was arrested, put on trial and convicted.

He would spend more than three decades in prison.

And for most of that time, he avoided dealing with what he'd done, both the crimes themselves and the reasons he committed them.

At a young age I was exposed to childhood traumas that wasn't processed.

I had to dig out that hole before I can even address any of the crimes that I committed.

But then in 2012, when he was in his mid-40s, he was transferred to San Quentin State Prison in Northern California.

And then he heard about this restorative justice program.

Now I had heard some things about restorative justice but I wasn't familiar with the concept.

...