May 21, 2010 – While Chicago police continue their investigation into the death of a 28-year-old Michigan man at Marina City on May 12, they have decided it was not an accident.

“It is not accidental and there were no mechanical issues that would endanger the rest of the community,” said CPD News Affairs Officer Darryl Beaty on Friday.

According to police, at about 9:48 a.m., the victim, identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office as John William Cooper, may have jumped from the roof of the west tower, a 60-story building. He landed, on his back, on a white delivery van parked on the east side of North Dearborn Street, outside House of Blues. The van was at Marina City to pick up and deliver laundry at Marina Cleaners.

An obituary published on May 16 in The Detroit News said Cooper was attending law school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He had graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan School of Business. With a Masters degree in accounting, he had worked as a CPA.

Cooper was engaged to a 26-year-old woman recently living in the Minneapolis area. A wedding registry on Amazon.com had the wedding date as August 15, 2010.

Funeral services for Cooper were scheduled for May 18 in Oak Park, Michigan.

(Left) A 2007 photo of John W. Cooper from his web site that contains numerous photographs – but only as recent as Christmas 2007 – of Cooper on trips with friends and at family gatherings.

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