A weekend visit to a Detroit playground ended with a young girl’s hospitalization for severe injuries after an acid attack.
Local news outlets interviewed the victim, 11-year-old Deaira Summers, who recounted the moments leading up to the attack.
The whole ordeal unfolded on Sunday, July 9, at an elementary school playground after a fight between a 12-year-old girl and Deaira’s cousin started that Deaira was never part of.
At one point, Deaira’s mother witnessed the 12-year-old girl’s mother hand her a bottle filled with liquid, which she threw on Deaira, her cousins, and her siblings.
“Her mother met her in the park and gave her the chemical to throw on the kids, and she told the kids that’s what they get for messing with her daughter,” Dominique Summers told Fox 2 Detroit.
Deaira said she felt the acid burn through her clothes and skin at once and immediately ran home to shower.
“Two seconds later, it started like burning and went through my shirt, my shorts,” Deaira told WDIV. “I was screaming, I was crying.”
She was taken to a local children’s hospital where she was treated for three days. Her mother said she suffered severe second-and third-degree burns all over her back, legs, and arms. Now, she has trouble walking.
Dominique Summers said this attack won’t just physically scar her daughter but will leave emotional and mental scars as well.
“It was a traumatizing event that took place, and she’s going to remember this for the rest of her life,” Summers said.
“I hope she gets everything she deserves,” Deaira said of her attacker in an interview with Fox 2 Detroit.
Authorities are withholding the identity of the 12-year-old girl who was charged with felonious assault and assault with intent to do great bodily harm, both felonies. At a preliminary hearing, a judge ordered a $10,000 bond with a tether. She’s not allowed to contact Summers or any witnesses. Her next court date is set for July 18.
Deaira’s family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for medical expenses. So far, the page has raised more than $3,000 of its $10,000 goal.
Because the attack happened on a Detroit Public Schools Community District playground at Vernor Elementary School, the DPSCD Police are investigating, not Detroit Police.
The school released a statement on the incident:
“The incident did not involve our employees or was it connected to a District or school event. This is a community matter involving two families that do not both attend our school district or the school.”
