Before we begin this episode, a warning. All of these tales are graphic. This one, especially so.

Javier Irrongo has known violence his whole life. Born in Colombia, he described seeing bodies on the dirt streets where he began selling coconut treats when he was four years old.

As a teenager, he followed his father to the U.S., but they landed in a gang-infested portion

of Oakland, California, where kids flash their colors and their guns and vow to retaliate

every killing, which means the violence never stops.

He remembers one classmate's death in particular.

I was like on the 10th grade and this girl had gotten killed and all of the other kids

were really upset about it.

He remembers the girl's brother swore he would shoot the guys who shot his sister.

Javier was walking behind the kid when the brother said,

Yeah, they shot my sister, and if I see him around here, I'm going to shoot him too.

Then the guy reached into his backpack. He had a Dora the explorer backpack, a pink little Dora Explorer

backpack. But from that backpack, he pulled out a big old 357 like this, a barber. And he started

aiming at everybody like this. That's the life, Javier says, he's always known, one where everyone

is armed, even children.

It seems little wonder then that Javier was shot and today is paralyzed from a bullet to his spine.

From the team that brought you accused in collaboration with the trace, this is Aftermath,

a podcast about gunshot survivors.

I'm Amber Hunt.

Colombia was mired in conflict for some 50 years from the 1960s through 2016.

The government there battled with crime syndicates and paramilitary groups, as well as

guerrilla organizations, like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, also known as FARC, and the

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