Diontae Spencer was a student at McNeese State University in Louisiana when he received a phone call that changed his life.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d be getting a phone call, being a freshman in college in my dorm, finding out that my dad was just killed,” he tells PEOPLE. “Looking back at the whole thing, you kind of think you’re in a dream, but you’re really not.”
“The guy that shot him, I knew him personally from growing up, playing basketball and stuff like that,” he says. “You have to decide whether you’re going to sit and be angry, and be frustrated and get revenge and all those different things.”
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Diontae Spencer.Justin Edmonds/AP/Shutterstock
On Jan. 19, Spencer, now a wide receiver for the NFL’s Denver Broncos, sat down with three other professional athletes — Devereaux Peters, a now-retired WNBA forward;Stedman Bailey, a former wide receiver for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams andDeAndre' Bembry, guard for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors —for an intimate conversationabout their personal experiences with gun violence and how it affected them.
The virtual roundtable event, in partnership with PEOPLE and the nonprofit advocacy organizationEverytown for Gun Safety, brought the athletes together ahead of National Gun Violence Survivors Week, which runs this week through Friday. The athletes are all members of theEverytown Athletic Council, whose members highlight the gun violence crisis, often with very personal stories.
Nearly 40,000 Americans are killed with guns every year in America — and approximately 85,000 more are shot and wounded, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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“I’m finally able to talk about this and not get emotional,” Spencer says about his father. “But I feel like we have to reach the youth right now, because that’s where [gun violence is] happening… We can’t save the whole world, but if we can reach one kid that might change everything for that child.”
source: people.com
