A Missouri mother says her 7-year-old son was hospitalized with severe burns after another child allegedly dumped nail polish remover on him and then set him on fire with a candle.
Police have not yet determined how the boy was burned, but Ashley Lyons told the Kansas City Star her son Julien Sandlin was playing outside last Monday in front of his family’s Hawthorne Place apartment in Independence, Missouri, when another kid reportedly doused him with the flammable liquid.
“Julien kept telling him to leave him alone and that’s when he decided to burn him,” Lyons told the Star, noting that she wasn’t home at the time of the incident and Julien was in the care of his older brother and another adult.
A neighbor ran outside with a wet towel and rolled Julien on the ground, the newspaper reported. The child was rushed to the hospital where family members say he ultimately needed surgery.
Independence Police said they could not confirm how the child was injured, but did say they responded to the 1700 block of Concord Circle for a burned child.
The case was last listed as a “medical-suspicious” investigation, which remained ongoing, according to spokesman Officer John Syme.
“Due to the suspicious nature of the medical call, the officers took a police report,” Syme said in a statement Monday. “The investigation is trying to determine how the injuries took place.”
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According to a GoFundMe set up to help the family, Julien’s condition is improving.
Still Lyons told the Star “it’s a very painful process for him.”
