Literary Las Vegas: Tommie Scott

Las Vegas resident Tommie Scott plans to spend his life making up for the wrongs of his youth. Challenges came on thick from Scott’s early childhood. His father was in and out of jail, and Scott was drinking at 10 and smoked his first joint at 12. Before he hit junior high school, the gang life came calling. Then came crime, prison by age 20 and, from behind bars, redemption. Now Scott shares his stories with young men in Las Vegas. He hopes to share his experiences nationwide through his book “The Tommie Scott Story: From Gangs, Drugs, and Crime to Soldier for Christ.”

Excerpt from ‘The Tommie Scott Story: From Gangs, Drugs, and Crime to Soldier for Christ’

Still, in the midst of all this good, I somehow continued gravitating toward gang life. I was gaining a better understanding of their operations. I learned how to bag up marijuana for sales. One night while I was walking home from my friend Lee’s house on the north side of my neighborhood, I took a shortcut through the park area. There stood OG SK, one of the guys I looked up to, with ten other guys who were drinking. He said, “Li’l Tommie, come here.” They called me Li’l Tommie because there was another Tommy whose nickname was Capone #3; he was my big sister Tasha’s boyfriend.

Laughing, he said, “It’s that time.” The first blow to my jaw was a quick one, and I went down without a chance to swing back. Many kicks and punches followed. After the initiation beating, I didn’t say anything. I just got up and went home with a big lip, sore jaw, and grass in my hair from my head being stomped in the ground. I made it home and as I stumbled my way up the stairs to my room, my mom seemed to appear out of the darkness. She asked, “Are you drunk?” I turned around, and she was shocked by my appearance. I told her I fell off the handlebars of a bike, but she didn’t buy it.