A 6-year-old Connecticut boy was severely burned when a young neighbor doused a tennis ball with gasoline before lighting it aflame and tossing it at the child’s face, a report said.
Dominick Krankall was playing in his backyard in Bridgeport on Sunday when he was bullied by an 8-year-old boy who snatched gasoline and a lighter from the shed before coaxing the child to come near him, according to NBC New York.
“As soon as he walked down the stairs, the bully called his name and lured him over around the corner,” the boy’s sister, Kayla Deegan, told the outlet.
“In a matter of seconds he came back around the corner screaming, saying, ‘Mommy, they lit me on fire! They lit me on fire!’”
Kayla said the sadistic act was done on purpose and the neighbor has bullied her brother in the past.
“What he did was pour gasoline on a tennis ball, took a lighter, lit it up and just chucked it right at my brother’s face — and then ran away from him and watched him burn,” she said.
“Two months ago under the bully’s mother’s supervision, he was pushed into a wall and fell to the floor. And again, the mother refuses to admit her kid did it.”
Dominick was rushed to the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital where he was recovering.
The family started a GoFundMe to help aid the child’s recovery. They received $162,000 in donations as of Wednesday night.