Ray Duggan will be the first to tell you just how tough he was. Raised to never run from a fight, Duggan started running with a gang at 14. With his father in prison and absent from his life, the gang was everything to Duggan. "It gave me a sense of being," said Duggan, now 31. Running with the Young Bloods in the West End neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, Duggan says he felt the need to prove himself. "I had to make myself meaner and tougher," he said. He got his first gun at 16 and admits "shooting people and running away from the police" were his adrenaline.
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Former gang members Ray Duggan and Joel Irizarry were paralyzed after being shot
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Permanent disability and lifetime health care is their new reality.
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The cost of care is huge -- for the victims and society
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Duggan and Irizarry now work to help others make the right choices
After joining the gang, @placeholder felt he was leading a double life.