‘My son was lit on fire.’ Bully threw gasoline-soaked ball at 6-year-old, CT mom says
A 6-year-old boy was left badly burned after his mom says a bully soaked a ball in gasoline, lit it on fire and hurled it at him in Connecticut.
“My son was lit on fire,” Maria Rua wrote April 24 on Facebook, sharing a photo of her son Dominick with his head wrapped in bandages.
The attack sent Dominick to a nearby burn unit where he is being treated for second and third-degree burns on his face and legs after getting struck with the fireball on Sunday, April 24 in Bridgeport, NBC New York reported.
The Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit is investigating the incident alongside the Bridgeport Fire Marshal’s Office, a state police spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement.
Rua said that an 8-year-old neighbor, who has bullied her children before, threw the flaming ball at Dominick, according to her Facebook post.
Four children were seen playing with gasoline and setting items on fire outside of Rua’s home the day of the incident, according to a statement provided to McClatchy News from Scott Appleby, Bridgeport’s director of the office of emergency management & homeland security/emergency communications.
“As soon as [Dominick] walked down the stairs, the bully called his name and lured him over around the corner, and in a matter of seconds he came back around the corner screaming, saying ‘Mommy, they lit me on fire,’” his sister, Kayla Deegan, told NBC New York.
Meanwhile, Deegan created a GoFundMe to raise money for her brother’s “hospital bills and a new home because it is not safe here,” she wrote, adding that Dominick “has been bullied for a while by the tenants downstairs.”
In an update, Deegan posted that Dominick “is doing a little better.”
“Yesterday was the first time he actually was able to get a few bites of food past his extremely swollen lips and into his mouth. He could only handle a few bites, but that is some good news.”
As Dominick recovers, his father, Aaron Krankall, tearfully told News 12 that he’s “thankful” his son doesn’t need surgery.
“Yesterday, he looked in the mirror and said, ‘Mommy why do I look like this?’ That just kills me. That breaks my heart. This wasn’t his choice,” Rua told the outlet.
The statement provided by Appleby said “the incident is currently still under investigation” by Bridgeport police and fire investigation teams to determine “the exact cause of the burn injuries.”
McClatchy News has contacted Rua for further comment.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 10:40 AM with the headline "‘My son was lit on fire.’ Bully threw gasoline-soaked ball at 6-year-old, CT mom says."
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