"He's got an extensive background. He's well known to the guys up here," says Jim Mattheis, spokesman for the Tacoma Police Department.

Powell's rap sheet includes arrests for robbery, burglary, drug possession, assault, domestic violence and now he is wanted for 2nd degree murder.

Dimitri Powell has also been in the news before. KOMO 4 News reported on him nearly nine years ago when Powell was just 11 years old. Back then, the story was about a 'wanna be' gang member and a victim of gang violence.

"The second time he was shot I knew he was dead then," said Charlene Powell at the time. Charlene is Dimitri's mother and was relieved her son had survived -- survived not one gang shooting, but two shootings in a month.

He was lucky.

Nine years later, Dimitri Powell is not the victim, he's the man police are searching for.

Nine years have passed since we first told you about the boy with the angelic face, when we asked 'How could this happen to a child?'

"Yes I remember when he was shot, " says Tim McGee, a former gang member who works to reduce youth violence. He's based at Mt. Calvary Church in Seattle.

McGee can identify with Powell because McGee himself joined a gang when he was 9 years old.

"My dad used to tell me: 'Young fools grow up to be old fools,'" says McGee.

McGee was wiser than most. He now helps gang members break the cycle of violence. It's something police say Dimitri Powell did not do.

The young man whose childhood picture made us want to believe his life would get better is still on the loose.

"He went from victim to victimizer," says McGee who adds: "It didn't happen overnight."