Coach: Slain prep star was a 'truly good kid'

If the shooting had started 10 seconds later, Jayone Troutman kept saying, his friend Ryan Royall would have come home safely.

Royall, a 17-year-old basketball star at Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, was preparing to get in his car and drive off, his friends said, when he was shot in the back. Royall was the victim of a stray shot that came from a scrum of people scuffling in the parking lot at an event hall in Lynwood after a party early Sunday morning, witnesses said.


A gifted guard/forward known for his single-minded dedication to basketball, Royall hoped to parlay his talents into a university scholarship. He was an all-conference pick this year as a junior, and college coaches were interested, friends and family said.

“He was gonna make it,” Troutman, 17, said 11 hours after he saw his friend shot to death. “He was gonna be successful.”

Royall was one of two people shot in the parking lot of the Ho Chunk Sports & Expo Center shortly before 1 a.m., police said. A 16-year-old had rented the center for a birthday party attended by 300 to 500 people, authorities said.

Royall was rushed to Franciscan St. Margaret Health hospital in Dyer, Ind., where he was pronounced dead at 1:21 a.m. of a single gunshot wound to the back, authorities said.

Even after he was told his friend died, 17-year-old Olajuwon Harris, who was at the party and then the hospital, couldn’t convince himself Royall wouldn’t be coming back.

“I could even cry because I couldn’t believe it,” Harris said Sunday afternoon, still awake after a sleepless night.

Lynwood police offered no information on the investigation or the surviving gunshot victim.

Huddled outside Royall’s Country Club Hills home, where dozens of relatives, friends, teammates and coaches gathered Sunday, Harris and Troutman said they went with Royall to the party, although none of them were closely acquainted with its host.

The party ended about 12:45 a.m., and Harris, Troutman, Royall and two girls joined the other guests streaming into the parking lot. At one end of the lot, they saw a group of people brawling, the boys said, but they didn’t want to get involved so they walked to Royall’s car at the other end of the lot.

Shots cracked from across the lot, and Harris, Troutman and the girls dropped to the ground behind the passenger side of the car, the boys said.
As the group that had been fighting scattered, Royall’s friends crept to the driver’s side of the car, where Royall lay bloody and gasping for air.

Troutman said he felt powerless and frustrated. Harris knelt and held the face of a friend he met in 3rd grade.

“I was just thinking, ‘He’s gonna make it,’ “ Harris said.

Royall was a quiet, coachable team leader and a “truly good kid,” said Hillcrest basketball coach Don Houston. He lived to “do one thing and do it right,” said his aunt and godmother Vallaurie Dixson.

Asked about his interests other than basketball, Dixson answered, “nothing.”

Away from the court, he was obedient and helpful, “every parent’s dream,” Dixson said, voicing confidence that his loss was part of God’s plan.

“I don’t know what (God’s plan) is. I ain’t too happy about the way he’s carrying it out. But God has a plan,” she said.

Royall’s father, Charles Harris, died years ago after an illness, Dixson said. Royall is survived by his mother, Wanda Royall, four brothers and two sisters, Dixson said.