Teen Charged in Acid Attack

Chemical rained down on kids from a porch, mother says

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with heinous battery for allegedly throwing a caustic substance on two children on the South Side.

The children were hospitalized with burns Tuesday evening after coming in contact with a chemical that rained down on them from a porch in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

An 11-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were on the sidewalk in the 900 block of W. Garfield Boulevard when the 13-year-old, who has not been named because he is a juvenile, threw the chemical on them, said Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quentin Curtis.

"I was in the house and my daughter come upstairs screaming and crying and shaking, and I was trying to find out what was wrong, and she was like, 'the little boy threw hot water on us.'  So we think it was hot water.  Then another lady come upstairs and said it wasn't water because after a while my daughter's skin started buckle or whatever and it was all on her face it started to buckle or whatever.  We knew it wasn't water," said Gwen Davis.

Davis said she confronted the young man but he denied throwing something on the girl.

"And all the little boy could say was, 'You ain't got no proof.  You ain't got no proof,'" Davis said.

She said she suspects the incident was intentional.

"I guess they like my daughter, and yesterday I told him to leave her alone," she explained.  "So I guess from yesterday to today it escalated because she don't want to play with him anymore or talk to him because of what I said."

Both children were taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, Curtis said.

It was unknown Tuesday evening what type of chemical was thrown on the kids.

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