LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — As Lakeland Police Officer Jamie Smith rounded a corner at the Carrington Place Apartments Wednesday afternoon, his body camera captured the moment police said the 13-year-old suspect shot him in the left foot.

“’Cause shooting at a police officer, he’s lucky his life is still here,” Keith Jackson said.

After the drive-by shooting in Lakeland that injured 11 people in January, 46-year-old Keith Jackson organized a “Stop the Violence” rally in March.

“The community is not taking responsibility for our own kids,” he said.

But Jackson is working on changing that by searching for solutions to steer young people away from a life of crime.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the 13-year-old shooter was with two teen gang members and he was on probation from another crime earlier this year.

“Getting involved in a gang, you got two options, death, jail,” Jackson said, “and other than that you can lose a family member.”

The president of the Lakeland branch of the NAACP Terry Conney said the interventions need to begin before some of the boys reach middle school.

“We have to go back and really catch these kids in early elementary or at least by fifth grade and give them another path, another avenue,” Conney said.

That alternative path, Conney said, can be through sports, music or by finding a mentor in the community.

“If anyone needs me, we need to get together and figure out how we can stop this,” Jackson said.

Jackson told News Channel 8 that parents and family members need to be more proactive in keeping guns out of children’s hands.

“You are the ones that know these guns are in your houses,” Jackson said, “and if you don’t know it’s because you’re not doing your due diligence by checking under that bed. You’re not checking in the drawers. You’re not checking in the closet. You’re not checking the shoe boxes and I know these things cause this is where I used to keep my gun.”

Jackson said he’s planning a “Stop the Violence” rally in the Tampa area, in addition to another one in Lakeland.

Once the 13-year-old shooter is released from Tampa General Hospital, he will be booked into the Polk County Jail for multiple felony charges including attempted first-degree murder.