Six-Year-Old Boy Set On Fire By Neighborhood Bully In Deliberate Attack

A six-year-old boy is fighting for his life after a neighborhood bully set him on fire.

Dominick Krankall was brutally attacked on Sunday by an eight-year-old child who had a history of harassing Krankall. As the boys played outside the building where they both lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the bully left and retrieved gasoline and a lighter from a nearby shed. He then doused a tennis ball with the gas, lit it on fire, and lured Krankall to where he was. Once the child was close enough, the bully tossed the ball at his face. According to ABC7, up to four unsupervised kids were observed by witnesses playing with gasoline and setting things on fire Sunday afternoon. However, detectives are still investigating the incident and what led up to it.

Krankall’s mother, Maria Rua, said she heard her son screaming for help. His older sister, Kayla Deegan, wrote on the established GoFundMe page that her little brother had been bullied for a while by the child, who lived downstairs from the family. She claims that two months earlier the eight-year-old boy pushed Krankall into a wall as his mother watched but refused to intervene.

Krankall remains in the burn unit of a local hospital with second and third-degree burns to his face and legs. His family says he is making some improvement but still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. The GoFundMe received over $300,000 in donations as of Thursday.