Former Baltimore City Councilman Kenneth Harris Sr., who was gunned down in front of a Northeast Baltimore Jazz club on Saturday morning, used to talk about growing up in Park Heights, the son of a single mother who was so poor she had him sleep in a dresser drawer, not a crib.

As a young man, he survived the streets of one of Baltimore’s deadliest neighborhoods, eventually graduating from Morgan State University, a journey he said gave him a sense of purpose.