More bangin'

Former Pulaski County coroner Steve Nawojczyk says HBO is making good progress on the sequel to "Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock", the 1994 documentary that put Little Rock's gang problems on the national radar screen. Nawojczyk, who was famously the near-victim of a drive-by shooting captured on film in the first "Bangin' in Little Rock" documentary, is known as an expert on gang culture and symbolism, and will feature prominently in part two. He said the new documentary will focus on Leifel Jackson, a Crip gang leader featured in "Bangin'" who has turned his life around after spending most of the last decade in prison.

Recent weeks have seen an HBO film crew tagging along with Nawojczyk to various speaking engagements. He adds that crew members who worked on the first "Bangin'" documentary have been shocked at the changes they have seen in the metro area's inner city. "We did go back to one of the first spots I took them [Silver City Courts] in part one," Nawojczyk wrote in a recent e-mail, "and they were blown away with the improvement."