I was recently asked a question by one of my coworkers about the scar I have on my temple and I explained to her how that happened. When my brother, Eric, and I were kids, we were shot by three boys who were attempting to unalive a boy they were all bullying, but got the wrong house. We were both sleeping on the fold up bed in our living room when it happened. I was shot in the head and Eric was shot in back. Both of us were lucky to still be alive afterwards with the minimal damages we have, aside from some noticeable scars. She was absolutely horrified at it and was worried she crossed a line by asking. I said no because people always asked about it and I got over trying to cover it up. When I explained the motive behind it, my coworker was even more horrified and had questions about what happened to them afterwards. To put it short, I know they did time in the juvenile detention center and after that, we heard nothing since. Them and they're families just disappeared from the public eye. No news reports, no public statements, they simply just disappeared. My mom obviously never wanted to talk about it so I never brought up the topic to her. I mean, what mother wants to relive the time her kids almost died? Then she asked me something that stuck with me: what would you say to them if you ever met them? It's not the first time I've been asked that question, but keep inind, I had forgotten it for a while before she asked and it just stuck with me. Curiosity got the better of me and I did a little research of my own. Their names and such weren't in the papers since they were all minors, so I asked some of my some of my old friends from that neighborhood of they heard anything on it. Their names might not have been in the papers, but in a small town, word gets around pretty quickly. One of their siblings, named Janice, knew the boys as they attended the same school when this happened. The thing she heard about them was one was taken out of state to live with other family members, and the other two actually stayed in town, but switched schools and moved to other neighborhoods. Probably so nobody would recognize them. Janice also mentioned that when this all happened, the cops were frequently stopping by their houses for wellness checks on the other children in the house. After that, everything else went silent. They simply disappeared. Eventually, I kinda gave up on the idea, and there was no way I was gonna mention it to my mom or Eric. They both just wanted to forget the whole thing happened. It wasn't until I went to a house party after doing a bar hop, and we were all playing truth or dare. A girl I didn't know was asked what's the craziest thing she saw at a party. She went on about how a guy drunk AF was bragging about almost unaliving two little kids with his best friends and how it was funny because they got the wrong house. I was already connecting the dots but she wasn't finished telling the story. Another guy there walked up to him and before she knew it, the guy pounced on him and started beating him up in the middle of the living room, yelling at how he knew those kids. He drug him outside and continued to beat him up until the cops got there. She was laughing and everyone was going on about how the guy had it coming. I pulled her to side and asked her a little bit more about that fight and the guys involved. She explained him the best she could which was difficult as she was buzzed, but she mentioned a specific tattoo on the guy who started the fights arm. A half blue butterfly and half skull tattoo. I immediately thought about one of our church friends sons, Jake, who helped our family during this time. I pulled up his picture from my phone and she confirmed that it was him. My buzz completely went away after that and I got an Lyft home. That was a month ago and I've been going back and forth about talking to him and asking all questions about them, specifically that bragging one. It's already messed up to be involved in a crime like this, but to openly admit it and say all the things he did, it makes me so angry. If we didn't make it, I don't know what would have become of my mother. On the other hand, he did get his world rocked for even making a joke about it and maybe that could've been karma coming back to bite him. This eternal war has been driving me crazy, I wanted to reach out to Jake about that night but he's been in and out of the hospital due to some health issues. That only leaves my mom and Eric, but like I said, both of them want nothing to do with that incident. AITAH if I ask them and continue to find them?