While of course I feel the boy and his family for what they went through. But I do not think that the incidence has carried over to this. The parents should have spent the two million on the boy to have him professionally helped if they feared that he was going down the wrong path. I

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Romarr Gipson was arrested and told he was a killer when he was 7. It took almost a month before he and a friend were told it was all a mistake and they could go home.

Now 15, Gipson is behind bars, charged as an adult in a double shooting. And some wonder whether the false murder accusation ruined his life and pushed him down a troubled path.

"The detective pointing his finger at him did this to him. The court did this to him," said the Rev. Paul Jakes, a community activist.

The arrest is another chapter in a story that continues to haunt the lives of those involved.

Gipson and another boy, then 8, were falsely accused of killing 11-year-old Ryan Harris in 1998 for her bike.

The boys were ultimately cleared after tests showed semen on the girl's clothing could not have come from them. DNA tests later led prosecutors to charge a convicted sex offender, who pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced to life in prison.

The collapse of the case against the boys led to an Illinois requirement that children under 13 charged with murder or sex crimes must be represented by an attorney when they are in custody and being interrogated.

In addition, Chicago police now require a parent or guardian to be present when youngsters under 13 are held for questioning on felony charges. Also, Illinois requires the videotaping of interrogations in homicide cases.

Gipson's family settled with the city for $2 million. The other boy's family settled for $6 million.

Then, over the weekend, authorities said Gipson and his 18-year-old stepbrother were caught on video as they opened fire on two men in a parked car Wednesday at a gas station in the suburb of Calumet Park. One of the victims was seriously wounded. The other was treated for a bullet wound in the leg and was released.

Gipson and his stepbrother were charged with aggravated battery.

Jan Susler, an attorney who represented Gipson in his lawsuit against the city, said the false allegations against him traumatized him.

"This kid was identified wrongly by the Chicago police as a kid capable of doing the most heinous, heinous, horrible act, somebody who could actually sexually attack and murder a little girl," Susler said. "When authority figures tell a kid they're capable of that, it shatters him."

Susler said the boy wet his bed for years, chewed his fingernails until he drew blood and would dive to the floor of a car if he saw a police car approach. In 2004, at age 14, he was arrested for accidentally shooting a friend and placed on electronic home monitoring.

Ryan Harris' mother, Sabrina, said she does not believe that Gipson's arrest in 1998 led him to the point where he's now charged with a crime.

"You can't keep blaming what happened eight years ago on what you are doing currently today," she said. The other boy, she said, "You never hear anything about him."

But while the other boy has not gotten into the same kind of trouble, attorneys say the youngster was transformed from a sociable, bright kid who earned good grades into a frightened teenager who rarely steps off his porch.

"It's safer in the house," the boy, identified only as E.H., testified before his lawsuit was settled.

Gipson's latest arrest has been all over the local news, and many people have called into Cliff Kelley's morning show on WVON to weigh in.

"They're not saying, `Oh, this poor kid,"' Kelley said. "They are just saying that society has failed him and society is partially responsible for where he is."