James Cross feared the man was already dead when he found him unconscious and slumped against the doorway of a portable toilet inside a crowded homeless camp in south Minneapolis.
After yelling for help, Cross frantically pumped the man's chest and took turns breathing into his mouth, to no avail, before stabbing him six times in the thigh with syringes of Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of heroin. When emergency workers arrived, the man had already come back to life and was cradling his head on Cross' shoulders, according to people who witnessed the rescue.
"We've gotta show who's in control. Otherwise, it would be chaos out here," Cross said, recalling the incident as he walked through the crowded camp in recent days..
Cross, 52, has spent almost half his life in prison for drug-related crimes, including 14 years for his role in a drive-by shooting. Yet this charismatic former gang member and ex-addict has transformed his life and now stands at the forefront of a burgeoning movement to drive drug dealers out of American Indian communities across Minnesota.
Thousands of Indians have joined the street outreach group he founded, known as Natives Against Heroin (NAH), which is known for confrontational tactics and spiritual healing methods to battle the widening drug epidemic.
"James knows the streets. He knows addiction, and the powerful force that he is," said Peter McLaughlin, a Hennepin County commissioner who represents much of south Minneapolis. "He is a great voice for the community."
Cross and his growing army of red-shirted volunteers have marked their turf by showing up at dozens of drug houses across the state with drums, burning sage and cries of "Shut it down!" With recent grants from the city of Minneapolis, NAH last year began conducting nighttime patrols of the Little Earth housing project and nearby neighborhoods, where they sweep the streets for used needles and confront pushers. It is dangerous work: The unarmed volunteers have been threatened, assaulted and had guns drawn on them while on patrols.
"I pray for James every day, because he is literally putting his life on the line for people in need," said Richard Latterner, treatment manager at the White Earth Opiate Treatment Program in Minneapolis and an early organizer of NAH. "He has a huge heart."