3 men who were in detention center together working to drive down teen violence

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Teen violence is up. It's a dangerous trend ABC13 has been reporting on for years now. Even more so this week, after four teenagers were killed in shootings from Thursday to Monday.

Dieter Cantu was arrested at 16, Christopher Kimble at 14, and Charles Hargrave at 13.

"It's kind of embarrassing being that young because I came from a good two-parent household. My mom was instilling in me good characteristics. I was just hanging around with bad friends," Hargrave said.

"Growing up in the streets, my parents were not very proactive with me or my siblings, so we followed leaders, gang leaders, and that's who we looked up to," Kimble said.

These three men, once in a detention center together, are now part of a group called Juvenile Rights. It's a consulting firm that works with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to provide educational, job training, and mental health services within facilities and rehabilitation programs for juveniles once they are released.

"I thought I was young. I'm not going to get a lot of time. They're going to give me a slap on the wrist and I'll be back out, but I feel like they made an example out of me, and I feel like I want to be a positive example for the kids and just let them know what I've been there," Hargrave said. "They will listen to me because I was them. It's not like I'm telling something that's not true."

"I think adults make decisions. Children make mistakes," Cantu said. "You got to just show up for those kids."

According to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, homicides committed by kids aged 16 and under have doubled in recent years. There were 49 cases in 2024.

"The state that we have right now is really an emergency," Kimble explained. When you don't have people like myself, people like Mr. Cantu and all the other gentlemen, you leave nothing but law enforcement to do the job, but there's only so much they can do, only so many people they can arrest."

Working together, using past mistakes to prevent new ones.

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