How a Homegrown Teen Gang Punctured the Image of an Upscale Community

Preston Lord, a slight, gangly sophomore known for his school spirit, was there with friends from the basketball team. The party was wilder than they were used to. They “spent most of the time being ‘wall huggers,’ ” hanging out in the garage, one of them later said. Some older girls confronted them teasingly—were the boys sure they were old enough to be at a party like this? (This account of the party is drawn from an eleven-hundred-page report made by the Queen Creek police; many interviewees were minors, and their names were redacted.)