The summer has not official started yet, but, in the flaming heat, we have seen violence across the nation from Miami Beach to Boston. In each case, young kids, mostly African American males, are snuffed out in their prime. Earlier this month, a 17-year-old star basketball player from Chicago was shot and killed by a stray bullet.
Ryan Royall was a star at Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills. He had attended a Sweet 16 birthday party and was preparing to leave in his car when he was shot in the back. He was the victim of a bullet resulting from a group of youth fighting after the party. Before his untimely death, he was fielding offers from several Division 1 institutions and wanted to use basketball as a means to attend college.
Royall was one of two people shot in the parking lot of the Ho-Chunk Sports & Expo Center shortly before 1 a.m. on June 6, 2011, according to police. The birthday party at the center was attended by 300 to 500 people, authorities said.
Now, this same story played out again this week in New York. Schenectady High basketball player Eddie Stanley, 15, was shot multiple times early Sunday, June 19, and bled to death in an apartment entryway while a crowd fought around him.
Stanley also was on a path to stardom and was attracting the attention of many coaches and recruiting specialists. He was playing in Amateur Athletic Union league games the weekend of his death. According to his father, he was supposed to be at a basketball tournament in the Bronx Saturday night, but instead sneaked out and attended a party. The Schenectady High hoop star was deejaying at a party when a fight broke out, and he was shot five times.
As crime patterns have shown for many years, when the temperatures rise, so does the number of murders and injuries related to violence. The job market is not improving at a steady pace, and what we may be seeing might be the start of even more troubling and violent behaviors in our community. The deaths of these two young men were senseless and unnecessary. However, I am afraid that this will get worse, unfortunately, unless we stand, form a united front and try to change what we see occurring in our communities. –torrance t. stephens, ph.d.
