Twenty-two years ago Danny Givens walked into a VFW in the Rondo neighborhood and shot then-Ramsey County deputy Art Blakey.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — It is the drama of two men from St. Paul's legendary Rondo neighborhood who against all odds, managed to find forgiveness.

This week, St. Paul native Danny Givens shared his story on a national stage. He was a guest on the Steve Harvey talk show, with the host and popular comedian calling Danny’s story the highest level of forgiveness.

“This is the best story I have ever told in seven years of talk show. The best story,” he said.

It was a KARE 11 story shared by our parent company, TEGNA, that caught the eye of the national television show. Turn back the clock to the spring of 1996, a Saturday night, when Danny and a small group of friends entered the VFW hall – a popular Rondo neighborhood hangout - with armed robbery on his mind.

“As soon as we came in I opened fire,” Givens recalled.

His plan was to let people know he meant business. But Givens had not counted on the armed Ramsey County deputy at the bar, off-duty and enjoying an evening out.

At the sound of Danny’s shots, panicked patrons scattered. Sgt. Blakey confronted Danny in a back hallway. The two exchanged fired.

Art and Danny were both rushed to Ramsey Hospital, shot by each other in their stomachs. To this day, Art’s daughter, Brooke remembers her father’s first words when she finally reached his hospital room.

“‘I'm fine, is he OK?’” Art asked his daughter.

Brooke also remembers her indignant response. “Is he OK?” She blurted back to her father “I don't care that he's not OK."

Art counseled his daughter. “This is not the time for that,” he said from his hospital bed. Brooke stood stunned. “Are we really having a life lesson right now?” she said to her dad.

But Art’s compassion for the young man from the neighborhood who had nearly killed him, was just beginning. At Danny’s sentencing, Art asked the judge for leniency.

“I was looking at about 60 years,” Danny says. Art thought it was too much and told the judge so.

“’He should be given a second chance, I don’t think we should throw away the key on this young man,” Danny recalls Art telling the judge.

“The way he told the story, it was like a grandfather talking about something that happened to one of his grandchildren,” Danny said. “The judge started crying during his testimony.”

Instead of 60 years, Danny served 12.

While in prison, word reached Danny that Art had been stopping by the house to check on his mother. The man Danny shot even wrote a letter suggesting his shooter be given an early release.

Brooke again found herself incredulous with her father. “When he was like, ‘I'm going to write this letter,’ us as a family were like, ‘What?’”

But Danny, who had entered the prison system an angry man, was feeling his heart soften. While still incarcerated, he began studying Christianity and was ordained as a minister. “I was in prison the whole time knowing this gentleman had nothing but love for me,” he said.

Still, Danny couldn’t fathom what happened back in the neighborhood after his release. Danny was leaving his mother’s house, when he saw a truck stopped in the street. “And he rolled down his window and he looked at me and he said, ‘And your name is, young man?’ – and I said, ‘Danny Givens.’”

Art opened the door and got out, then Danny found himself enveloped in a hug. “’I'm so proud of you. I love you. I forgive you,’” Danny remembers Art telling him.

“I will never in my life forget that day,” Danny said.

Art died in August. Days leading up to his death, Danny was told he should stop by for what would be a final visit. Danny told us he had a special relationship with Art but was not sure how his family would respond.

“The scariest thing I have ever done was knock on his door,” he said from the sanctuary of his church. “His daughter opened the door. And immediately she smiled and said ‘Hi Danny, come in.’”

She told Danny that day – and this week on the Steve Harvey show – her family had forgiven him and they wanted him to continue their father’s legacy.