HIGH POINT, N.C-- A Triad man who spend 18 years in prison for selling drugs is making it his new life mission to keep others from making the same mistakes he did.
"I remember looking out of my window and I saw a drug dealers, hustlers, gangbangers everything out of my window. So when my mom passed I ran to the streets," Greg Commander said.
It's a decision that haunts Commander to this day. It's what started his life of crime.
"I bought my first package and I never turned back," Commander said.
He was in the 8th grade, a young man with his whole life ahead of him. But he would spend the next few years dealing cocaine for one of the most notorious gangs in High Point, the Juice Crew.
Today, he's a different man. He says he wants to be part of the solution not the problem.
" I see beyond just the blood. I see pain and it hurts."
Gang violence in High Point is a problem. Four of the 17 deaths this year are gang related. And Commander knows the end results for those responsible.
"You're on the run. You're in the penitentiary. Somebody's dead, if not both," Commander said.
Commander spent 18 years in prison for selling cocaine, and it's there, that things started to turn around.
" I always had the mindset after going to prison that I need to do something different than what I was doing because it was complicated. And I knew that wasn't my life," Commander said.
First, he learned how to read.
"Without and education I felt weak. I felt low class like I was nobody," Commander said.
Then, he got his GED and helped others do the same. When he got out of prison, he knew he had to keep young kids from making the same mistakes he did.
"I wish someone would've introduced something positive to me that I would've never had to take that route," Commander said.
He travels around to schools across the country sharing his life story as a warning. He met Allen Tulloch at a school in Salisbury, NC and made a lasting impact in Tulloch's life. Tulloch was in the 8th grade.
"I was in a lot of fights I was a bully I was one of those kids that didn't care who you were," Tulloch said. "School wasn't for me around that time, but then I met Mr. Greg Commander and I got my life together."
Because of Commander's influence, Tulloch said he stayed out of gangs.
"I'm happy to say that I'm 21 with no record. It's all about the guidance and who you have in life to steer you around," Tulloch explained.
Commander's next mission is to help stop gang violence in High Point. That's why he started the non-profit Commander Peace Academy.
"I came up with the peace academy because I felt like I want to get closer to my community. Most organizations that I know don't get out in the community and meet out people where we are at." Commander said.
Those in the academy talk with current young gang members about reality, the repercussions of their dangerous lifestyle, and where to get help.
Commander says many times the young gang members are just looking for love and acceptance and says the community needs to give them both.
"The reason I talk the way I talk is because I'm that same individual who they said was nothing, would amount to be nothing. Lock him up! Throw away the key. He's nothing. But today, I'm 10 years out the system," Commander said. "Not out stealing and robbing not out killing not in gangs, but I'm trying to make a difference in my community."
Greg Commander says education got him where he is today. In fact, peace in peace academy stands for proper education always corrects error.
He graduated from Laurel University in High Point in 2015 with degrees in Christian Counseling and Theology.