Little is known about how the four suspects charged in the slaying of 23-year-old Dwayne “Tuttie” Borges last Wednesday came to be involved in the altercation.

“It really stunned me. They didn’t seem like that kind of people,” said resident Deneen Rose. Rose, who helped organized a Stop the Violence peace rally last Saturday, said she refereed three of the young men when they were kids in the Wareham Junior Basketball Association.

“I don’t think they understood the repercussions,” she said. “It’s sad that all these children were under the age of 20 and it’s sad they now will have no life.”

Retired Wareham History teacher Michael Collins said that he knew the four suspects, Latroy Hairston, 19, Jared Frye, 19, Demetrius Goshen, 18, and Adrian Garcia, 20, and had taught the three youngest.

Not only did he teach them, but Frye grew up down the street from Collins.

“I never knew him as anything but a sweet kid,” Collins said of Frye, who was currently attending night school in town.

He said Frye was the second youngest of five siblings and remembers giving him and his brothers a few dollars for odd jobs around his house.

Collins said Frye was raised by his grandparents, who he knew as nice people.

He said he remembers Frye getting in trouble in school from time to time, but never for anything serious.

Collins said Hairston, the star high school basketball player was a nice kid. He said Hairston could be a bit of a class clown at times, but always participated and asked thoughtful questions. He taught Hairston in a criminal law class.

Collins said he taught Goshen at night school. He said Goshen wasn’t the best student and had a bit of an edge.

Hairston and Goshen’s lawyers maintain neither have a criminal record. Garcia’s lawyer said Garcia resided with his mother in Wareham before moving in with his aunt in Wareham four months ago.

“I don’t know if they even had had a reason why they did what they did,” said Rose. “They’re good kids. They just got caught up in something.”