BLOOMINGTON -- It was a typical summer day for 10-year-old Travell Arrington: Out riding bikes with his siblings, cousin and a friend.

"We got so many (kids in the family) that they pretty much get out together and do their own things every day," said Stepney Bones, the Bloomington boy's uncle. "My nephew is my nephew ... I'm just all torn up about it."

Travell was killed Tuesday afternoon when a semitrailer truck turning into Pilot Oil Travel Center, 1520 W. Market St., hit him head-on, authorities said.

McLean County Coroner Beth Kimmerling said Wednesday that he died of severe head injuries. A witness said Travell and a second boy were trying to beat the semi's turn off Brown Street.

The distraught, 35-year-old driver from the Chicago area told police he never saw them. Police spokesman Duane Moss said Thursday that police do not plan to issue the driver any citations.

Remembering Travell

Travell was being remembered as a happy, photogenic kid who had good manners with his elders and loved to draw.

"He was just a good little kid and didn't mess with anybody," Jazlyn McDearmott, 12, whose brother was best friends with Travell, said Tuesday. "He was playful and fun and made you laugh."

"They all hang (out together) like brothers and sisters every day," Lachaka Wise, Jazlyn's mother, said Tuesday. She said she felt like she'd lost a son because the children play together so much.

"He was a very respectful little boy - he respected his elders. He was very mannerly," said Roberta Wise, grandmother of Jazlyn.

Travell was set to play on the Black Knights youth football team with his cousins for the first time later this year, said Glenna Chandler, who founded the Bloomington team with her husband, Curtis.

Travell didn't play last year because his family thought he was too small for the tackle squad, she said. But that changed after his family saw the cousins in action.

"He was really excited about it," Chandler said.

Travell dreamed of growing up and playing football, Bones said.

Travell had three brothers and two sisters and lived with his mother in an Indiana Street apartment, said Bones.

The boy was set to start the fourth grade at Sheridan Elementary School next month, and Bones said he was an honor roll student.

Kimmerling's office and Bloomington police are investigating Travell's death.

Travell was going to or had been at the truck stop to buy something, Kimmerling said. Bones and witnesses said Travell was riding with at least four other youths who were in the area.