North Carolina Dem Senate candidate added former Bloods gang member to criminal justice task force: report

Pittman was convicted in a 2006 drive-by-shooting of 19-year-old Jamel Amiens Jeffreys, the Free Beacon reported.

Pittman defended his involvement in the task force and argued his past actions were the result of poor judgment as a teenager.

"I was asked to contribute to conversations about criminal justice reform because of both my lived experience and the work I was doing in communities," Pittman told the Free Beacon. 

"I have never hidden my past. The gang involvement and criminal conduct you reference occurred when I was a teenager and young man at or before the age of 19. I am now 39 years old.

"I made decisions as a young person that had serious consequences, including spending more than a decade incarcerated."

Pittman and the Whatley campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.