"Once you're in these streets, there's no coming back from death," Goodman said. "I was one of the lucky ones to be able to get out of it alive and not incarcerated."
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He spends his off time volunteering with violence interruption groups -- working to convince at-risk kids and current and former gang members that there's a better, safer path.
"I try to say to them, I've been where you're at," Goodman said. "So we're trying to get the ones that we see going down the wrong road. And we try to snatch them and keep them from going down that road."
Tuesday night's news of a Raleigh teenager shot in the head outside of a New Bern Avenue gas station sent Diana Powell's phone buzzing once again.
"People texting, messaging, crying," the community activist recalled. "They're asking when is it gonna stop? When is it ever going to end? What can we do?"
Powell is teaming up with Goodman in planning a new Stop the Violence rally. But she admits the mounting bloodshed is fueling community doubt that it can make a difference.
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"When I was telling people and passing info around about let's do another rally, people said, 'Miss Powell, what for? We're doing it, and everybody keeps going back to their old ways,'" she said. "But doing nothing -- does that accomplish anything?"
Goodman said the latest rash of gun violence plaguing the city is a combination of gang brutality and individuals with weapons angry at each other.
"It's a little bit of all that," he said -- calling for more county funding and resources for children to get them off the streets. He's also calling on parents to deliver the love that too many young people are finding in the wrong place.
"When you have gang members out here and they're showing that love to them, that's where they're going to go -- where they feel the love," said Goodman.
The Community Benefit Day event is April 30 at Q's Catering at 311 N Tarboro St. from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.
James Montague, the successful Black business developer from southeast Raleigh, is a special guest -- emphasizing the push to get more local companies involved and investing in community-based solutions to gun violence.