Local anti-gun violence activist very nearly became a statistic himself

A local activist says he recently nearly became a victim of the very thing he is fighting against.

Brandon Chastang was driving around West Philly around 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 31 when he noticed a car behind him. “I was just checking out the community,” Chastang told me. A social media influencer with 120,000 Instagram followers and known around town as “B.McFly” — which stands for Being Motivated Comes from Loving Yourself — the former substitute teacher produces content about the importance of peace, sobriety, and community.

That day in January, Chastang assumed at first that the driver was someone he knew, trying to get his attention. As he stopped at 55th and Sansom, the motorist pulled up next to him and yelled, “Do you have a f— problem with me?!” Startled, Chastang said that he responded, “I’m good. Everything’s OK.” But everything wasn’t OK: The motorist pulled out his gun and began firing.

Chastang, who told me he has a gun permit, fired back, and the other motorist eventually drove off. Luckily, Chastang was unhurt but rattled, his silver 2020 Chrysler 300 riddled with about 10 bullet holes.

When Philadelphia police arrived on the scene, “the first thing I said was, ‘I’m licensed to carry. Someone was trying to kill me, and we were literally in a shootout,’” he recalled. “Everybody in the community was coming out, like, ‘We know him. He’s a positive, sober messenger. A motivator.’”

Chastang, who also recounted his story on Fox News and on KYW News Radio, told me he believes that the fact he was armed saved him. “If I didn’t have a firearm to protect me, I probably wouldn’t be here today,” he said. But that doesn’t mean he wants to take someone else’s life; on many of his Instagram videos, he wears a T-shirt proclaiming: “I don’t wanna kill you, I wanna heal with you.”

Afterward, Chastang posted a short, rage-filled video of himself railing about what had happened, yelling, “What if I had had my kids in here, man! [You] come into the community, to save the f— community, and this is what I [get]!”

The outrage in his voice is palpable. What if his children had been with him, or the shooter’s aim had been better? One of Philadelphia’s most ardent voices calling for an end to all the bloodshed could easily have become another statistic.

It has been more than a month since the shooting, but Chastang remains deeply shaken by his close call. Needless to say, he’s pretty much fed up with Philly right now. I can’t say that I blame him. A lot of folks are, including me.

Gun violence is out of control in this city. This year has seen a slight increase from where we were last year, but it still feels as if you’re not safe anywhere in this city. When I’m out these days, I’ve become hypervigilant. My head is constantly on swivel mode.

“I am paranoid to drive for Lyft now. What am I going to do now?” Chastang asked. And with the shooter still at large, he’s worried about going back on the job.

Chastang told me he has no idea who shot at him or why; he told me he didn’t recognize the motorist. He said he worries that his high profile as a social media influencer makes him especially vulnerable since a lot of people may know him but he doesn’t know them.

The fact that this close call happened to Chastang — a powerful force for good in the community, who talks about gun violence and his experience with addiction (which he uses to encourage sobriety) — is “heartbreaking,” G. Lamar Stewart, pastor of Taylor Memorial Baptist Church, told me.

“You have a young man who is very transparent about his life and dealing with the grips of addiction,” said Stewart, who does nighttime outreach with church volunteers in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. “His social platform has grown based upon that level of transparency. He talks about how he was an absent father, what he put his physical body through and his emotional health through. But at some point, he made a decision for change,” Stewart noted. Now Chastang strives to serve ”as an interrupter of violence, as someone who has helped to spread a message of sobriety to those in the grips of addiction.”

Chastang’s recent experience with gun violence ”is heartbreaking when you think about his passion and his commitment to doing this work,” Stewart added. “I applaud his strength. I applaud his sensibility. But I also applaud his willingness to take the time necessary to heal.”

Stewart’s comments brought me back to Chastang’s oft-repeated motto: “I don’t want to kill you. I want to heal with you.”

Right now, he also has some healing to do of his own.