10-Year-Old Boy Charged With Aggravated Assault After Hitting Classmate With Dodgeball
CANTON, Mich. (CBS Local) -- A 10-year-old Michigan boy was charged with aggravated assault last week after another boy suffered a concussion during a schoolyard game similar to dodgeball.
The incident happened April 29 at Ruth Eriksson Elementary in Canton. The boy allegedly threw the ball high in the air and hit a child in the face, who has a condition where head injuries can be more dangerous.
The kid who threw the ball was intentionally aiming for boy's face, according to a police report.
"He sustained facial issue damage to his face. He had a black eye and a bruised nose," the victim's mother told WXYZ.
The boy who allegedly threw the ball was also suspended from school for one day. His mother, Cameishi Lindley, thought the punishment for her son should have ended there. Instead, she got a call from Wayne County Juvenile Court on Wednesday that her soon-to-be fifth grader was being charged with aggravated assault.
The mom of a 10-year-old boy received the shock of her life recently... she got a call saying her son would be charged with aggravated assault after playing dodgeball at school:https://t.co/sJlKvFcOAS
— Annie Yu (@AnnieYuTV) July 30, 2019
"I couldn't believe it," Lindley told WXYZ. "This is a kid that was playing on the playground with his friends."
Lindley said neither she nor her son, Bryce, knew of the other student's medical condition and shouldn't have been playing a game like that in the first place.
Because the boy charged with aggravated assault is black and the boy who was injured is white, some critics call the charge overly harsh and racially motivated.
"Some 10-year-olds were playing dodgeball on the playground at school. A white kid got hit with the ball. Then, they charged the 10-year-old Black child with assault," tweeted film producer Tariq Nasheed. "This is why we should not prioritize any of these border issues, while our kids are racially targeted."
The case "was evaluated by our Juvenile Prosecuting Unit, and it was determined that there was enough evidence to for us to charge aggravated assault," Wayne County's assistant prosecuting attorney Maria Miller told Yahoo Lifestyle.
The case is scheduled to go before a judge in juvenile court on Aug. 1 for a pre-trial hearing.