Details Slowly Emerge In Student's Mysterious Death

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 5, 2009 5:22PM

As family and friends deal with the death of 10-year-old Aquan Lewis, details are slowly beginning to emerge from the fog of uncertainty surrounding his alleged suicide. Lewis was found hanging from a hook in a bathroom at Oakton Elementary School in Evanston; he was pronounced dead at Children's Memorial Hospital early yesterday morning. Among the details we now know are that Lewis had threatened to kill himself earlier in the day after he was lectured by a teacher. Authorities say they found Lewis hanging by his shirt collar from a hook in a stall with a footprint on the toilet seat.

Aquan's mother, Angel Marshall, is insisting it wasn't a suicide. "My baby did not kill himself," she said. "You all need to get in that school and look at that stall." The family has retained an attorney to get more information out of authorities about the death. For his part, Evanston police Cmdr. Tom Guenther only referred to the incident as a "death investigation." Officials are still battling the skepticism that comes from such a death. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide and while suicides for children between the ages of 9 and 11 are very rare, they do occur (around three dozen in 2005, the last year with available data from the CDC). Either way, the death is a tragic one, only amplified by this story from the Trib.

Aquan had completed his first season of tackle football. At a little more than 80 pounds, he was assigned to the flyweights squad of Evanston Junior Wildkit Football. Coach Tracey Wallace put him on offense after Aquan kept asking to run the football.

He got his chance during the final home game against a Northbrook squad in October. He caught a pass and ran about 50 yards before he was tackled near the end zone. "He laid there for a minute. It wasn't that he was injured, but he was so sad he didn't score a touchdown," Wallace said. "He had the potential . . . not only as a citizen, but as an athlete, he had the potential."