buffalo news_american dream turns into nightmare for sudanese family

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American Dream turns into

nightmare for Sudanese family

Teen who fled Sudanvictim of slaying

By Gene Warner

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Updated: June 12, 2009, 8:06 AM /

Kowat Rual came to Buffalo at age 7, fleeing the violence in Sudan with

his mother and four brothers after his father became a hunted man for

being a Christian.

Kowat was described as a sweet, innocent kid, always trying to please

others, trying to make his way in a new world, a new culture.

Then in his teens, by all accounts, he became smitten by life on the

streets, apparently to make friends and be accepted in his new land.

Less than a month before his 16th birthday, he died a violent death.

Late Tuesday morning, Kowat’s naked body was found along the

Buffalo River at the Ohio Street fishing access site. An autopsy later

revealed that the boy, who lived on Garner Avenue on the city’s West

Side, had died from strangulation and blunt force trauma.

The irony, for those who had worked with Kowat and his family, wasinescapable: They had fled the violence that threatened their lives, only

to lose Kowat to a different kind of violence in Buffalo.

“They came here seeking this dream of what America would offer them: safety and freedom,” said

Joan M. Ersing, executive director of Reach Out to Africa. “To have this happen is exactly the

opposite of what they expected.”

Ersing, pastor associate at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, had known Kowat since the

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family arrived here in September 2000 from an Egyptian refugee camp.

She says she feels guilty, on behalf of us, about what happened. After his body was found, Ersing

approached his mother and other Sudanese women mourning his death.

“I feel like I owe the Sudanese people an apology,” she told them. “You came here to be safe, and

we let this happen.”

Buffalo police say they believe that Kowat, apparently missing for at least two weeks, might have

been killed some time Monday night or Tuesday morning. But they say they don’t know whether he

died where his body was found or whether his body was dumped there after he was slain

elsewhere.

Homicide detectives were trying to determine whether Kowat was killed because of any

involvement in gang or drug activity.

Detectives want to hear from anyone who knows who might have been with Kowat in his final days

and hours — and what he was doing during that period. Anyone with information should call the

Police Department’s confidential tip line at 847-2255.

“It’s troubling that a 15-year-old would suffer that fate, and it makes you wonder what he could

have done to be killed that way,” Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards said Thursday.

Three or four years ago, Ersing recalled, the young Kowat had asked her, “Miss Joan, if I get a

good report card, can I get a bicycle?”

But unable to find the support and encouragement to overcome language and cultural barriers,

Kowat never managed to make his mark in school.

Instead, he drifted away from studies.

“He went from being a sweet, innocent kid to becoming someone who was more attracted to life on

the streets,” Ersing said. “He became hardened.”

She learned, she said, that the once-innocent boy started asking why he had to go to school, why

he had to follow a nighttime curfew.

“In the end, with Kowat, what happened to him was that he was trying to prove himself, trying to

find friends, whether they were good or bad,” she said. “He was trying to be accepted.”

The homicide victim, Ersing said, differed strikingly from the younger Kowat.

“I remember the excitement he had in the littlest things — a model car or a soccer ball or a [hooded

sweat shirt],” she said, recalling a Christmas while he was a young boy. “That was the be-all andend-all for him.

“And he wanted to please.”

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buffalo news_american dream turns into nightmare for sudanese family

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