John Wilson Ruckman
Age 12
Cherry Valley, Illinois
A musician who’ll never drum again
He liked playing baseball. He enjoyed playing Xbox with his friends and family. He was a drummer.
At the Christmas pep rally at Rockford Christian Middle School last December, he played “Run Run Rudolph,” smiling alongside his brother and the rest of his band, Vitamin Gang, to a cheering crowd. “[He] smiled with his eyes,” his mother said, adding that he was “always worried about other people.”
John Wilson Ruckman, 12, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in his home in Cherry Valley, Illinois, on March 3, 2018. Also killed was his 14-year-old brother. Local law enforcement said the boys were killed by their father, also found dead.
