quote:

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Youth sentenced to detention center in baseball bat killing

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Defense attorney William McKinney argued that Rourke was relentlessly bullying the younger boy before the attack, and said his client had merely taken "the wrong path."

However, prosecutors contended the older boy was merely teasing him.
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Witnesses said the 13-year-old's team had just lost its first game of the season, and he was getting in line at a snack bar when he and Rourke got into some sort of scuffle. Some witnesses said there was a dispute between the teens over their place in line; others said Rourke teased the suspect over the loss.

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The article starts out calling them friends. It doesn't sound like they were friends - is this the phenomenon where adults think any two kids of the same age who associate are friends?
 

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Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
 
Unfortunately the report is very short on answers. In any case it seems unlikely the two were, in fact, best friends. Someone has been seriously, seriously unobservant and didn't have any idea what the hell was going on.
 

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Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
 
"Rourke said he and his son were "best friends."

That is saying Rourke and his dead son were best friends. It isn't saying the victim and the killer were best friends.

Or maybe not. Now I'm confused.
 

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