Instead, he tracked down the person who did it -- a 17-year-old gang member trying to impress his friends, according to Muriera -- and asked him whether he wanted to learn to box. The kid was delighted.

"Boxing appeals to everyone, so I wasn't surprised," said Muriera, 42, of Fuquay-Varina. "This is what we came here to do."

Muriera and a friend opened the gym, South Side KID GLOVES, in September to provide a diversion to gang members and to kids who might be tempted to join gangs. Even though some have questioned whether Muriera is fueling violent behavior, he sees it as a subtle way of teaching discipline and channeling aggression.

"If they want to bang heads, they can punch all they want here in the gym," said Muriera, who works as a Wake County youth health educator.

Muriera has been around gangs since he was a kid growing up in San Francisco.

Although he had a normal childhood, he said he got an intimate look at Asian gangs by hanging around his cousins, who became members after moving to the city from the Philippines. Muriera said he frequently saw gang members battle one another with chains and bats.

After completing a bachelor's degree in public health, Muriera worked in HIV and gang prevention for several nonprofit agencies in the early 1990s. At the time, gang violence in the area was making headlines.

"The work that he used to do in San Francisco would keep me up at nights," said Muriera's wife, Lynda Muriera, a Wake County disaster response coordinator.

In 1996, the couple left California and came to North Carolina to raise their children. They have three boys, ages nine to 13.

A few years after moving here, Muriera began seeing signs of gang activity in Raleigh. In 2001, he opened his first boxing gym, on Hargett Street. The goal was to pull gang members or kids headed in that direction off the streets and give them something else to do.

One of the roughly 50 teenagers using the gym regularly was Daniel Smith, then a sophomore at Mary E. Phillips High School in Raleigh. Muriera remembers Smith showing up with two black eyes and a busted lip that he apparently received during a fight with another kid.

Smith, 18, said the gym and Muriera's influence have helped keep him out of trouble. "It kind of focused my body and mind," said Smith, who dreams of fighting in the 2008 Olympics.

Simple but ideal

Muriera had to shut the gym in 2003 after his Air Force Reserve unit called him up for duty and sent him to a military base in Spain. Muriera worked there for several months as a ground equipment mechanic.

He and his friend Abdullah Jihad opened South Side KID GLOVES in September. It stands for Kids in Development, Growing, Learning, Observing, Visualizing, Excellence, Success.

At 3000 Creech Road, the gym sits next to a corner market in a neighborhood that Muriera describes as a stomping ground for several gangs -- which makes it an ideal location for what he's trying to accomplish.

On a recent afternoon, roosters bobbed around the parking lot next to a metal container overflowing with trash.

Inside the gym, the facilities are spartan. A few punching bags hang from the ceiling. A raised wooden platform serves as the temporary ring. Taped on the walls are photos from boxing magazines of famous fighters.

Muriera received a $4,000 grant through the Triangle Community Foundation to start the gym but figures he has already spent $2,000 of his own money to keep it going. He also spends about 20 hours a week there, teaching kids how to box and trying to persuade others to use the facility.

A volunteer trainer at the gym, Ralph Duran, described Muriera as a rarity.

"I knew some people like him back home," said Duran, 76, who grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Raleigh. "They were always helping."

Persistent fighter

The cost to use the gym is $15 per month. Muriera said about 20 people box there regularly. About 12 kids whom Muriera suspects of being in gangs have also worked out there once or twice. Muriera is careful to avoid lectures and sermons.

"In the early stages, we just try to get them to commit to coming in so we can train them," said Muriera, who sometimes takes his sons along. "Once we build trust, we start talking to them about why they choose to be in a gang."

Muriera is persistent when he spots a kid he thinks would benefit from boxing.

On a recent afternoon, he stood in the doorway of the gym watching a group of teenagers lingering in front of the corner market next door.

One of them, according to Muriera, was a high school dropout who spends hours there selling drugs. So far, he hasn't taken up Muriera's offers to start boxing.

"I'll keep working on him," Muriera said. "I'll get him."