Doyle Murphy: The boy and his friends played on the frozen pond in Newburgh's Downing Park, chipping the ice with a bat and kicking the shards across the surface. He was usually the youngest among his friends and had taken on the nickname La Bebe — the Baby — as a result.
Kids leaving school that Wednesday, Jan. 13, headed toward the bus stop at the edge of the park. Bebe had been out all day, a no-show for his seventh-grade classes at South Junior High School.
He looked up as a group of girls walked by. The girls taunted them, mocking their Newburgh street gang, La Eme. They called out, La Eme's fake, La Eme's soft.
“Keep walking,” Bebe's buddies called back. “Nobody wants to talk to you.”
They jawed back and forth, and one of the girls made a call on her cell phone. A couple of minutes later, a tiny 13-year-old nicknamed Pinky came jogging up the block. If Pinky wasn't a full-fledged member of the rival Benkard Barrio Kings gang, he was close enough. The kids eyed each other from half a block away.
City cops showed up at 4 p.m. No playing on the ice, guys. Bebe and the others hiked out of the park and toward First Street, where Pinky and the girls were already headed to a corner store. The two groups continued to argue back and forth.
Bebe closed in on Pinky. At age 12, he was a year younger than Pinky, but his 109-pound frame gave him a slight weight advantage. The two boys faced each other just outside the store. Bebe struck first, a right hand to the face. Pinky countered with two rights to Bebe's side. They felt like punches, but they were more than that.
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