Ok, Sewmouse the Devil's Advocate weighs in: 1) The article linked only says that the boys were riding in "the early hours of the morning" - no specific time given that I could see. This makes me wonder whether they were out LATE - 12:01 a.m.-ish? or whether they had gotten an EARLY start - 4:30? 5:30? 2) At age 16, I had a part-time job at a fast-food outlet that served breakfast. The "opening" part of the shift (before the actual restaurant opened) started around 5:30. There's a lot of set-up involved. Could the boys have been biking to their jobs? 3) This was a Saturday morning. Quite possible they'd plans for the day and wanted an early start. I know that my brother and his friends would charge out of the house before breakfast sometimes on weekends even when they were quite small, to go fishing down at the local pond. It is a tragedy - both for the kid, his family and for the police involved. I just don't think that blaming the parents for lack of supervision is necessarily correct.