IN - Hammond 9 year old boy set on fire in 'prank'

[angelmom]

This article explains a little more. Including the 9 yr old boy was with his older brothers the previous day when he met the three 13-14 yr old boys involved in the incident.

www.post-trib.com/news/1620653,hamburnfolo.article

According to the article, the 3 boys had the same story that the 9 yr old was standing over the open bottle of rubbing alcohol when he caught fire. How combustible would an open bottle be with a match say 6-12" away from the bottle? I don't buy it. These boys had 4 days to come up with a story before turning themselves into police.

At least we know LE is investigating this case. The boys should be able to give LE a reenactment of the events which took place and how far the bottle was from the child etc. etc. I still don't buy the fumes from an open bottle of rubbing alchohol would be that combustible from a distance to cause this type of accident.

I'm calling BS.

I don't see how there is any way for this to have happened, but even if it were an accident and they ran away b/c they were scared, they should have turned themselves in and reenacted the whole story for LE by now. LE should act like they care and collect evidence and take everyone's story separately and recreate the scene to see if it matches their stories. Their lab will know if alcohol could do that.

It is even more the reaction of both LE and the boys to the story than the story alone that makes me so sick. If the kids had stayed to help him while one ran for help, and they were all cooperative while LE investigated and determined that it was all a horrible accident, I would have been okay. Just like with MOTY Casey A. and all of her clones, the reaction to the events tell us a lot, and everyone involved here is acting like something other than an accident happened.

 

[lizzybeth]

If these little as***les are capable of this in their early teens what will they be capable of when they get into their twenties. There's no way this was an accident. They lured this little boy just for this reason. They're sick and if I were their parents I would want to get my kid some type of mental health help. AFTER they were punished for what they did to this little boy.

 

[Cubby]

I'm calling BS.

I don't see how there is any way for this to have happened, but even if it were an accident and they ran away b/c they were scared, they should have turned themselves in and reenacted the whole story for LE by now. LE should act like they care and collect evidence and take everyone's story separately and recreate the scene to see if it matches their stories. Their lab will know if alcohol could do that.

It is even more the reaction of both LE and the boys to the story than the story alone that makes me so sick. If the kids had stayed to help him while one ran for help, and they were all cooperative while LE investigated and determined that it was all a horrible accident, I would have been okay. Just like with MOTY Casey A. and all of her clones, the reaction to the events tell us a lot, and everyone involved here is acting like something other than an accident happened.

Exactly. The father having to practically beg the police to investigate. LE's lacsidical (sp?) attitude which leads the reader to believe the police are already buying the 3 boys story, just because they all told the same story makes me ill. This 9 year old boy deserves no less than same standards LE investigates any other case. I sure hope this childs parents retain an attorney. They need someone who knows and can ensure this case is being investigated as it should.

Sounds like those three teenage boys REALLY need some direction before we read about them doing something worse in a few years.

jmo

 

[Sheromom]

They willingly left him burning; they left him to die!

 

[JenB]

Yes, this is horrifying and definitely makes me think twice about letting my children play with older kids. Even if the kids seem nice one-on-one, mob mentality comes into play once they're in a group with no adults around.

Poor kid.

 

[Cubby]

Yes, this is horrifying and definitely makes me think twice about letting my children play with older kids. Even if the kids seem nice one-on-one, mob mentality comes into play once they're in a group with no adults around.

Poor kid.

OT- I agree. I just had a situation like that with my 6.5 yr old son in a group of kids ranging from 2 to 5 years older. I thought it would be ok as I saw the older girls being gentler to the younger girls, but with the age difference I saw a complete difference in how my son was treated by both the girls and boys. I asked a few on another parenting forum and they agreed it was bullying. Sometimes the age difference in a group is all it takes to treat the younger ones differently. From now on, no more than a max of 2 years difference between all in the group is my motto.

 

[Lovejac]

This smells like .

There is NO WAY this is a prank gone wrong.

Those boys meant to hurt that little boy and they did. If LE & the DA don't get their @sses in gear, this innocent boy will be victimized again!!!!!

 

[Truthwillsetufree]

If the rubbing alcohol was in water bottles, the bottles will "squirt", the older boys could have been 3 feet away (planned), no accidental spilling and what teens carry around bottles of rubbing alcohol?
LE needs to get their heads out of their Azzes and investigate this child's story and find out what happened.

 

[STEADFAST]

I feel so frustrated by this!!!! Knowing that area as I do, I have the distinct feeling that nothing is going to done about this at all. The ONLY way to change that will be for the community to speak up in large numbers, and honestly, with the racial strife there, I'm not sure they will. Well, they will hear from me and I hope enough other Websleuth members to show that there is now some national attention being given to this crime.

Reading at Cubby's link, I was reminded so much of LE's attitude in Aruba re Natalee Holloway's disappearance. For instance, this part:
"(Police) didn't talk to anyone until today," Judkins said. "It's been four days that they didn't do anything, so of course they're all telling the same story today."

Local LE needs to be pressured for sure. If this were an innocent accident, the boys would not have run away and stayed hiding for four days; they would have helped him get home for medical aid.

I notice there are already 14 pages of comments at the Sun Times article, so people are paying attention.

 

[Arielle]

Not that I am defending anyone who might have done this, but I can see how this might be an "accident" or a "prank" gone wrong. Rubbing alcohol burns at a very low temperature. You can pour some in your hand a light it on fire and not get burned. The problem here was that it was poured onto a shirt (a flammable object in other words) When the shirt caught fire, it would burn at a much higher temp and would cause the burns to skin.

So, I can see teenage boys saying, "Hey, watch this!" and then dousing the poor kid with alcohol and lighting it, not expecting it to actually hurt him. When it did, they freaked and took off.

Still ,the police department should be more responsive to the whole incident. And I totally agree on why in the world would older boys befriend a 3rd grader in the first place? Unless it was to have a weaker subject to torment. IMO, they meant to mentally torment him, not physically hurt him, or at least not to the extent that he was hurt.