In 1997, Darius Clark Monroe (left) was a high school honor student who had never been in serious trouble. Growing up in a family with financial problems, he and two friends one day decided they would rob a bank at gunpoint.
Seventeen years later, Darius sat down with David Ned (right), a customer who was in the Stafford, Texas, bank during the robbery.
One of the questions that did not make it into the initial StoryCorps broadcast was David being asked what would have happened in the bank that day if he had also had a gun on him? In response, he talks about how in his youth, he carried a gun for protection and was nicknamed “Brave Dave.” He then goes on to tell a story about living in a tough Baton Rouge, Louisiana, neighborhood in the 1970s, and having to make a difficult decision about whether or not he was going to use his gun.