by Lalo, San Francisco
I am writing this letter to share my sincere apologies to you for the incident on February 2021. I am really sorry for what I did. I feel your struggle and pain and I’m sorry for putting you and your family through these moments. I didn’t want to do what I did and I wish I could take the day back and things would be different.
That night, things happened so fast that I did not think. I just acted. At first, I thought I had killed you and I panicked. I remember when I got home and the days after. All I would think about was the incident and I kept wondering if you were dead. I was praying that you were not. I was only wishing you were not dead and hoped I had missed every bullet.
At no point did I ever want to shoot at you. I did what I did to scare you away from me. I never intended to hurt you. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt anybody and their family because I know from experience. I also thought about what you said to me in court and how you reflected on what you could have done to prevent this from happening. I have been thinking and reflecting ever since that day what I could have done to prevent that from happening too.
From this terrible incident, I want to thank you for also saving my life. I have been in and out of juvenile hall since I was 14 years old, but I never took the time I did as lessons. This time, it made me realize this is not the life I want. I do not want to keep on doing any of the things I have done in the past and hurting the people close to me.
I learned that putting myself in here is selfish because I thought about the people close to me and how they felt. Because of this last incident, I am now trying to get my life together and move forward to have a better life. I am getting myself ready to graduate from high school and enroll in community college.
For the first time ever, I have a job and I am looking for other opportunities to improve myself. I am seeing this incident as a second chance for me and I hope you will accept my apology.