8-Year-Old Allegedly Inspired By Ashawnty Davis' Suicide Kills Herself

She was supposed to celebrate her ninth birthday next week but she chose to end her life instead. An 8-year-old girl from New Jersey died by suicide Sunday in her Vailsburg home a week before her birthday. It is believed that the news of a 10-year-old Colorado girl, Ashawnty Davis who died after hanging herself because of being bullied at school, provoked Imani McCray to take the drastic step.

Reports suggested that McCray took the drastic step after reading a story about Davis' death on Facebook.

According to a report in the NBC4, prosecutors from Essex County are trying to figure out if McCray actually wanted to end her life after what she had read about the death of Davis, or if it was a tragic incident where the girl tried to imitate Davis.

Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly refused to comment on McCray's death., while at the same time stating that he is waiting for the autopsy report, NJ.com, a local publication, reported.

The prosecutor's office Tuesday confirmed that the preliminary autopsy reports did not show any visible injuries to the young girl, it was reported.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said: “It’s tragic... it’s just a horrible, horrible thing, no matter what the circumstances were around it, any time an 8-year-old child is dead is just horrible.”

According to various reports, McCray was asked to go to her bedroom as punishment. However, when she did not return for a long time, her family members went to check on her where they found her in an unconscious state. McCray's family members then tried to revive her, but she had a faint pulse. Her family then called the paramedics and rushed her to University Hospital in Newark without delay. However, she was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

In November, Ashawnty Davis, a 10-year-old girl from Colorado, died by suicide after a video of her engaging in a fight with an alleged bully went viral. Davis had to spend nearly two weeks in the hospital on life support before she succumbed to her injuries Nov. 29.

Davis’s mother, Latoshia Harris had claimed that the other girl was bullying her daughter and when the 10-year-old confronted her, it led to a fight.

“I saw my daughter was scared. She was devastated when she found out that it had made it to Musical.ly,” Harris was quoted as saying.

In McCray's case, investigators are now looking at possibilities whether she too suffered any kind of mental stress or depression like Davis which provoked her to hand herself.