Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Even while racial tensions are soaring in Ferguson, Missouri, the healing power of forgiveness changed the lives of two men – black and white – just 400 miles away.

The Grand Rapids Press is reporting on the story of Brady Middleton, 24, a white manwho was robbed and pistol-whipped after delivering pizza to the home of an African American boy, Marcellous Bennett, 13, and his older brothers. The attack, which occurred in June of 2009, left him requiring 70 stitches and three years of physical therapy as well as costing him college basketball scholarships.

Much to his own surprise, five years later, he is now mentoring Marcellus who looks up to him as an important role model in his life.

The story begins five years ago on a June night in Grand Rapids when Middleton delivered a pizza to an apartment. He had just rung the doorbell when the sound of a pistol cocking to his right made him turn around.

“Everything slowed down. My heart dropped,” Middleton remembers.

The Bennett brothers, including Marcellus, were suddenly all over him, hitting him with the pistol with a blow so fierce he fell to his knees. While blood began to flow down the side of his face, a handgun was pointed into his face and a sawed-off shotgun was thrust into his chest. He was told that if he moved, he’d be killed. They took his money, phone and car keys.

He was then marched into the nearby woods and told to get on his knees. “Are you going to kill me,” he asked, and his attackers said “Yes.”

“I thought it was over at that point in time,” Middleton told the Press.

He was about to plead for his life when his assailant suddenly took off and sped away in his car.

Bennett and his brothers were eventually arrested for the crime. Marcellus was sentenced to juvenile detention and probation while his older brothers are still serving time in prison.

Middleton required 70 stitches to close a laceration above his left eye and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which took a toll on his relationships and his grades. He also spent three years in physical therapy for post-concussion syndrome.

As angry as he was, his feelings began to change during the court hearings for Marcellus. He suddenly realized that the youngest of the brothers, who was only 13 at the time of the crime. Marcellus was just a child who was raised with no mentor or strong family support, forcing him to grow up in a world where criminal activity was common place.

“It’s really when the seed was laid that ‘My gosh, this is a child.’ How the heck does somebody get there?” Middleton said.

Middleton began to attend all of Marcellus’ court appearances and began offering words of encouragement to him.

The young man took notice.  “I knew that he cared about my future, so it was nothing but respect,” Bennett told the Press about his changing feelings toward Middleton.

When he was released from detention, the two met at Marcellus’ foster home, shook hands, and played video games for a while. Middleton finally asked Bennett why he committed the armed robbery.

Marcellus started to say that he and his brothers “had to”, but then stopped to correct himself and say they “thought they had to” at the time.

“That changed my life at that point in time more than the assault,” Middleton said. “It was indicative of a bigger problem … This just wasn’t about me.”

The two started to see each other more often and before long, a real friendship had forged.

“He understands a lot of stuff, even though he came from a different background,” Marcellus says about Middleton. “He understands some stuff that most people can’t understand. Even though he came from a side of the tracks where it was livable and they didn’t have crimes or nothing, he can understand.”

Middleton says he sees a lot of himself in the younger man. “I don’t see Marcell as a sum of mistakes and where he’s from. I see him as a human. That’s bigger and more important than any mistake, any background.”

His mentorship has been paying off. Although Marcellus did violate his probation a few times, having Middleton there to encourage him and urge him to do better has been the impetus he needs to stay clean.

Marcellus says the gang is “just what I seen, I breathed, I looked, I did. It was a family thing. Some people can’t help the fact that all they brothers is gang members. So when I was growing up, that’s all I seen.”

But he now knows that he has choices.

“I learned we choose our own destiny. We choose to go to college. We choose to stay on the street. We choose to have a job. We choose to sell drugs,” Marcellus told the Press. “The world is way too big for criminal activity.”

He just graduated from high school and is planning to attend barber school. For now, he’s working as a cook. If he stays out of trouble, his probation will be over in a year.

Middleton is studying political science at Grand Valley State University and has offered to share his apartment with Marcellus who is talking about going to college one day to get a degree in business administration.

The boy who never thought he had a future other than one in the gangs and, eventually, prison, now has high hopes for the future.

And it all started with a simple act of forgiveness.

We can only hope that when the heightened tensions ease in Ferguson – when the marching stops, the mourning eases, and the tempers cool – that the story of Marcellus and Brady will inspire others to choose a different path to justice – a path that begins and ends with forgiveness.

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