BLOOMINGTON - Last May, Elton Brown moved his 13-year-old son, CoJuan M. Harris, and his other children from Chicago to Bloomington because he thought it'd be a better place to raise kids.

And CoJuan was fitting in well here, his father said, making friends and liking school.

"Everything worked out pretty good," Brown told The Pantagraph on Wednesday. "Then this happened."

CoJuan was taken off life support late Tuesday morning, the day after he was pulled from the deep end of the swimming pool at YWCA of McLean County, Bloomington. Authorities consider his death a drowning.

McLean County Coroner Beth Kimmerling said Wednesday afternoon that her investigation into his death continues, though there is no indication trauma was a contributing factor.

Brown has some questions of his own, namely because he says his son wasn't a good swimmer but was found in the deep end.

The boy was one of more than 40 children in the pool area Monday afternoon, Kimmerling said. CoJuan was among the 24 there on a Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal spring break field trip, supervised by three adults from the organization.

Most of the other children were in the shallow end where a lifeguard was seated, Kimmerling said. The 145,000-gallon pool is 77 feet long and 47 feet wide, ranging from 4 feet deep at its shallowest to 9 feet.

It appears CoJuan was under water for several minutes before he was found and pulled out by a Boys & Girls Club staff member, Kimmerling said. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started by a second club employee, and an emergency room doctor who happened to be at the pool continued to provide care as emergency rescue responded.

The capacity of the pool and its surrounding area is 237 people, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which regulates pools.

YWCA officials are conducting their own investigation and have declined to comment until that is concluded. The Boys & Girls Club also declined comment.

'A big hole without him'

Brown said his son was a "bright kid" who attended Bloomington Junior High School and loved going to the Boys & Girls Club. The boy wasn't overly athletic, but he was getting into weightlifting and was very fit and good-sized for a 13-year-old, Brown said.

Jim Patton, a BJHS teacher who taught CoJuan, remembered the boy as a good listener and a fairly mature 13-year-old. Patton said the boy was extremely polite.

"He always said, 'Yes sir,' when he answered me," Patton recalled Wednesday.

After 30 years of teaching, Patton said he unfortunately has had experience in helping students grieve the death of a classmate. He anticipates some difficult emotions with CoJuan's death when students get back from spring break Monday.

"It's going to be a big hole without him there on Monday," Patton said.

BJHS employs three full-time counselors, and that team will work with school faculty and staff as well as students Monday, he said.

"We'll give the students the basic facts. Some of them may have been out of town for spring break, and may be getting the news for the first time," he said. Counselors will speak with sixth-grade classmates as a group, and students also will have the option of private counseling.

CoJuan had made a good number of friends from the neighborhood and school since moving to Bloomington last year, his father said. Brown couldn't keep his son away from the nearby Boys & Girls Club, he said.

"Once he got into the swing of (living in Bloomington), he had a lot of friends," he said.

CoJuan shared an Erickson Street apartment with his father, his father's girlfriend, and four siblings, sister Colleena, 15; brother Coshon, 10; stepbrother Darien Davis, 10; and stepsister Dasia Davis, 6.

His mother lives in Chicago. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The pool remains closed until at least Sunday, YWCA officials have said. | Fit Kids event at YWCA canceled

Greg Cima contributed to this report.