Kayden Culp, a 10-year-old special needs boy from Kerrville, Texas, was set on fire this past Sunday, October 2, and police have charged another juvenile with first-degree arson, the Associated Press reports.
Culp’s mother, Tristyn Hatchett, told the AP that her son suffered burns to about 20 percent of his body — from his ears to his belly button — and is now in a medically induced coma.
A YouCaring page created by Culp’s family also notes that his organs are failing.
According to Kerrville’s local fire marshal, the unnamed juvenile who has been charged with arson is “responsible for causing the victim’s burns.”
He is one of three boys — who range in age from 9 to 11 — who was taken into custody following the incident, Fox News reports.
Members of Culp’s family have spoken out about the near-fatal episode in recent interviews.
“The other kids are saying that he was going to be riding his bike like he always is, my nephew Kayden is going to be riding his bike, and they said we’re going to grab him and take him inside and burn him,” Culp’s aunt Kelly Mack told News 4 San Antonio on Tuesday, adding that she believes her nephew — who has autistic tendencies and has trouble speaking and hearing — was targeted. “If it wasn’t premeditated, it still is attempted murder.”
Hatchett told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday that she believes her son’s alleged assailants should be “incarcerated.”
“He considered these guys his friends, but they would make fun of him and pick on him and tease him,” the distraught mother said. “He was usually the brunt of that kind of joke, but he kept playing with them.”
Police chief David Knight told the AP that the kids were “friendly” with each other but doesn’t know how the fire started. Knight told the news agency that the kids were in a shed where there was initially a fire, and that the juvenile who is facing the arson charge left and returned with a gas canister to make the fire bigger. According to the police chief, when the fire traveled up the canister, the child tossed the container, which then hit Culp.
“We have no indication that there was premeditation involved to injure this child,” Knight told the AP.
