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It was into this climate that Ryan pedaled her shiny blue Roadmaster bike on the afternoon of July 27. According to detectives' court testimony, Ryan joined E. to ride bikes around Paul Robeson High School and instead wound up in an alley where R. was waiting. He began throwing rocks, striking her in the back of the head, knocking her off her bike, apparently leaving her unconscious. Detective Alan Nathaniel testified that the seven-year-old confessed to moving her bicycle to a nearby wooded area and dragging Ryan there as well.
There, the assaults continued, Nathaniel testified, and the boys said they "began to play with her." He said they yanked down her panties and put them in her mouth. They also began rubbing branches and leaves around her nose and mouth. Police found pieces of leaves stuffed in Ryan's nostrils. Nathaniel testified that a half-inch gash around Ryan's genitals was believed to have been caused by a "small tubular object," later identified as a twig. According to Nathaniel's testimony, the boys admitted stashing Ryan's bicycle in a weeded lot and returning later that night to discover that it had disappeared. It has never been recovered.
Folks in Englewood generally believe that the cops have nabbed the wrong people. They are not only having trouble imagining little kids committing an act so violent but say it's downright implausible that such featherweights--the boys weigh 50 lbs. and 56 lbs.--could drag Ryan more than a foot or so. "Every kid gets a little mischievous to get a little attention," says Blanton of the Wash Factory. "But something like this--no way. Not these two little kids." Echoes Cedric, a 15-year-old neighbor: "They got the wrong two people." Family members at the crime scene say that they were initially told by police that there appeared to be semen on Ryan's corpse--which, if corroborated by the autopsy report, would argue against prepubescent boys being the perpetrators.
But there are less than saintly stories about one of the young suspects. Archildress Byrd, a neighbor, describes R., known for his neatly cornrowed hair, as a terror to other kids in the community, an intimidating force who always wanted his way. "He'd throw bricks and stuff at people," Byrd says. "I just walk past him 'cause he was just too bad." Says another: "R.'s been around adults all his life. If you heard him over the radio, you'd think he's a man. He has a real bad mouth." Neighbors told TIME that R. is a gang-banger with the notorious Black Disciples.
On the day R. and E. were confined to their homes, two detectives returned to the scene where Ryan Harris was found. "People don't want to believe it's babies [that committed the crime], but it's babies," says Detective Stanley Turner of the Chicago police department. "We don't want to believe it, but if it's true, it's true." So what were the detectives doing back in the neighborhood? "We're making sure it's airtight, that's what we're doing," he said.
For R. and E., the summer has come to an abrupt end. It's likely, though, that one day they'll again ride bikes and shoot hoops--even if it's inside a locked facility. This fall Ryan Harris was headed for sixth grade, a time when kids go to their first school dance, join in team sports and play in the band. And she probably would have continued to rush to the defense of friends. Now those friends are wishing they had been there for her.