In another twist of tragedy, a sixteen year old high school basketball star was shot and killed in a senseless act of violence during his own birthday party.
Ryan Royall a student at Hillcrest High School was going for earning a college scholarship. Now that dream is gone just like the well loved young man from Lynwood, Chicago
His family and friends and classmates are stunned at the killing as he was one not to be in trouble and a favorite of the faculty, teammates, classmates, and neighborhood.
How he got into the path of gunfire is a tragedy and raises questions of whether his scholastic and athletic prowess attracted some sinister element bent on killing him to keep him out of the competition.
Far too often we read stories of good young people who for some reason get gunned down by some crazed criminal for no reason at all. We don’t see the stories about the criminal nemesis kids in high school and college that are in sports headed to careers, just the good ones.
This killing of Ryan Royall should be looked into as well as any pattern of such incidents where up and coming sporting contenders get cut down before they can make it to the collegiate or professional ranks.
The reports of what happened say that Ryan and friends had exited the party and avoided a group of people fighting at another end of the parking lot when shots rang out. Somehow, someway the bullets found their way to Royall and another youth. Royall was killed and the other teenager wounded in the leg.
How these bullets missed the two groups fighting but somehow hit the basketball star is a mystery that should be looked into.
