This story was published June 2, 2026 in The Washington Informer. By Sreehitha Gandluri and Jayne O'Donnell November 20, 2025 Youthcast Media Group® By his mid-20s, Ivan Taylor had been shot, stabbed, lost his best friend to gun violence and graduated from juvenile detention to prison for selling drugs that he used to treat his undiagnosed mental health disorder. Taylor’s story is one of how guns and drugs took hold of Washington, D.C. in the 1980s and ‘90s, undoing what lit