After being shot and paralyzed, Phoenix man works to keep children from violence

PHOENIX — In 1991, a 9-mm gunshot almost ended James Hinckley’s life at the young age of 17. He can still remember it all these years later.

“The taste of blood in my mouth – the warmth of it all – and then I could kind of hear people yelling,” he said.

Hinckley, who grew up in Maryvale, outside of Phoenix, was a gang member when he was shot. He said the gang provided father figures.

James Hinckley (Photo by Kathy Cline/KTAR News)

“My stepfather and real father — were good guys, but they didn’t really stick around too much,” he said.

Hinckley learned he’d never walk again — and decided to embrace his second chance at life. He would teach kids to stay out of gangs and away from violence.

“You keep the same swag, you keep the same talk,  you keep what you learned, from growing up and your community and you just apply it to draw the kids away from that,” he said.

Hinckley now works with kids around the Valley to help them choose non-violence, while working full-time at Phoenix’s Tumbleweed Youth Center.

And, he’s not losing faith that he may walk again one day.

“If I tell myself that I can’t walk — or that I’ll never walk again — then I’ll be stuck in that mode,” he said.

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