A police investigation into the death of a 10-year-old boy found hanging in an Evanston school bathroom agrees with the medical examiner’s finding that the student took his own life, police said Tuesday afternoon.
“The Evanston Police Department concurs with the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as it pertains to its postmortem examination finding that Aquan Lewis’s death was self-inflicted,” Cmdr. Tom Guenther announced Tuesday afternoon.
Guenther said the now-closed police investigation determined that Aquan, a fifth-grader at Oakton Elementary School, threatened suicide on Feb. 3, the day his body was found. This finding is also supported by physical evidence, including the boy’s polo shirt and his footprint on a toilet in a third-floor bathroom of the school, 436 Ridge Ave.
Aquan was found by a fellow student sometime between 2:40 and 2:57 p.m., when police received a 911 call, Guenther said. Authorities took the boy to nearby St. Francis Hospital and later transferred him to Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:05 a.m. the next morning.
Tuesday’s press conference ended two weeks of speculation after rumors surfaced in the days after the death.
The medical examiner ruled Feb. 4 that Aquan had hanged himself, but his mother, Angel Marshall, said publicly she didn’t believe her son killed himself. Friends and family members also told various media outlets they thought suicide was unlikely.
The police department didn’t let the medical examiner’s ruling or any speculation affect its investigation, Guenther said.
The concurrent finding had a significant impact on Marshall, said her attorney, Todd Smith, after the announcement.
“She was destroyed today in hearing from police that this was their conclusion as well,” he said.
The district has also been deeply affected by the death, said Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Superintendent Hardy Murphy, who answered questions alongside Guenther at the announcement and appeared visibly shaken.
“Our hearts are heavy,” he said. “We’re truly and deeply saddened by this tragedy.”
Police came to their conclusion based mostly on physical evidence and interviews, they said. The fact that Aquan’s polo shirt was buttoned all the way up was a sign that the boy took his own life, Guenther said. The position of his footprint on the toilet seat also indicated suicide.
While teachers said the 10-year-old was having a “good year,” interviews revealed the boy did have some anger and frustration, Murphy said.
The superintendent added that the boy’s name did not appear on the class’s bathroom sign-out sheet.
But the 1 p.m. press conference, which lasted less than 30 minutes, left many questions unanswered.
Guenther and Murphy couldn’t give a specific reason for the suicide. They didn’t know whether Aquan’s teacher or classmates noticed he was missing from the classroom or how strict the teacher is about leaving the room without signing out. They said he could have been missing from class for as short as five minutes or as long as 40 minutes.
Smith said he wasn’t satisfied with the police findings.
“I’m concerned about exactly when this child was last seen by somebody,” he said. “That’s an answer I think we’re entitled to. I think we’re entitled to know why we have not found in this investigation some sort of trigger.”
Smith accused the teacher and the district of being “at least negligent” and said that, in his opinion, future legal action is a possibility.
“Apparently ‘the teacher didn’t know’ is the defense to this conduct. I think that’s even more negligent,” he said. “How could the teacher not know when his job is to know? His job is to supervise that child. So how could the teacher not know?”
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has launched an investigation into “an allegation of neglect concerning the school.”
The district is also conducting its own internal investigation, Murphy said. The teacher has been placed on administrative leave until it is finished.
