AddressTheIssue: High School Basketball Player Killed Outside A Birthday Party…

by: PatriceJohnson, Your Black World

Ryan Royall, 17…

As an amazing student and standout basketball player at Hillcrest High School, Ryan Royall hoped that his love for basketball would one day help him to be able to get a scholarship to go off to college… But all of his dreams of going to college and making a better life for himself and his family were shattered on June 5th at approximately 12:30 a.m.

Royall was leaving a birthday party at Ho-Chunk Sports and Expo Center in south suburban Lynwood with his friend, Olajuwan Harris on that Sunday night. As they headed to their car they heard a disturbance in another parking lot and right after that gun shots rang out. Both of the boys hit the ground.

“I can’t believe Ryan is gone,” said Harris, 17. “He was a big part of my life. We were together all the time.”

The Hillcrest basketball team will dearly miss Royall, as they were supposed to play in the championship on Monday… After Royall had gotten them there.

This is another life cut short… No, he wasn’t in a gang, he wasn’t dealing drugs, he wasn’t a bully, he was just an all around good kid. He loved basketball, his family and his friends yet his is still another life that has been lost to violence…