A 12-year-old girl who is facing assault charges for allegedly throwing acid on another girl at a Detroit park appeared in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.
Deaira Summers, 11, suffered second-and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and back when the other child doused her with acid at a playground outside Vernor Elementary School on July 9, her mother, Dominique Summers, told the local ABC News affiliate WXYZ.
Prosecutors charged the 12-year-old Saturday with assault with intent to do great bodily harm and felonious assault and ordered a $10,000 bond.
A GoFundMe was created by Deaira Summers’ grandmother to help pay for medical expenses.
Deaira was an “innocent bystander” in a confrontation between her cousin and the 12-year-old, her mother said, a dispute that had started the previous day. Deaira left but dropped her purse, and was struck by the acid when she returned to retrieve it.
“I feel like it was the evilest thing you could do to a kid,” Summers said.
“I hope she gets what she deserves, and they all get what they deserve,” Deaira told the news station, which showed pictures of the girl’s legs streaked by burns.
“How does a child even think to bring acid to the park?” added Dominique Summers, who believes an adult was also responsible for the alleged attack. Authorities have not said where the acid might have come from.
“Whoever was involved with her, I would like them all to be arrested for what they did to my daughter,” Summers said.
When asked whether there are plans to charge any adults in the case, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Maria Miller told HuffPost that “other aspects of the case remain under investigation.”
In a GoFundMe launched to help cover medical and other expenses, Deaira’s grandmother, Debra Golston, said her granddaughter spent four days in a children’s hospital burn unit and was an “innocent victim of a heinous act.” Deaira had just completed elementary school, she said.
“This is an extremely troubling set of allegations. Instant horrible decision-making can have lifelong effects on others. There is no excuse for this,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said when announcing the charges.
The 12-year-old is due back in court on Aug. 1.
