Murky Waters

On a cool autumn afternoon, four boys mysteriously drown in the Schuylkill. A terrible accident? Foul play? Eight months later, police and the neighborhood are still battling over facts, meaning and the truth.

Justin is a lean 14-year-old with long, curved hands he braces against his temple when he speaks. He occasionally leans back to absently finger an odd series of holes in the window sash. "Bullets," he explains. The dealers.

"Since what happened, I tell my boy, Don’t go out," Christine says. "If he do, I have to look out this window and he able to see him right there. "

"No reason to go out anyway," Justin says. "Nobody comes around here now. Me and Kahlil" – I 4 -year-old Kahlil Wilson, who grew up on the block with Justin and the four boys "is the only two left."

When the subject turns to the others, Justin takes on an edge. "Everybody ’round here knows it wasn’t no accident. We used to go down to the river, to just talk about things, but we never gone swimming in that water. It was too dirty and cold when it was 100 degrees in the summertime-and that day was October. Somebody made them do it. "I wonder," says his mother, looking off, "how it was you wasn’t with them that day."    

"Don’t know what to think. They asked if I wanted to ride bikes. I was getting ready but the next thing I knew they was gone."

"Tell about the boys Justin," Christine says. Her son obliges, beginning-as does everyone who knew Kenyatta Ruffin, 14, Ford, 14, Sean Ellison, 13, and Dontel Johnson, 11- with Kenyatta the daredevil and leader. "Kenny was strong," says Justin. "He took karate. We’d challenge each other, see who’s the strongest. Wrestling, running around, throwing things. Jamie? He was a pretty boy. He used to get a lot of girls. You might say he was… persistent. I challenge him at that, too.  And he was athletic, always doin’ back flips. Sean … he be the one that made sure things got done right. We used to call him Goofy. Always playin’ around. He was … husky. He liked people, talking to them. Could fix anything, especially them bikes. Now Dantel was the youngest, and he wasn’t as fast and stong as we were. He was a joker, always talking to girls and stuff."