2 Young Children Accused Of Burning Down Playground
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A school playground was set on fire. WJZ has learned two young children are accused of lighting the match.
Meghan McCorkell has more on what happened.
Sources tell WJZ that an eight-year-old and a nine-year-old are now facing charges for lighting that playground on fire.
A melted mess is all that's left of the Greektown playground where hundreds of children played every day. Now crime tape surrounds the entire area at John Ruhrah Elementary Middle School.
"I was walking up the street and saw black smoke coming down towards my house," said witness Mason Nines.
It was the day of Thanksgiving. Witnesses say the playground went up in a ball of flames.
"When I saw it, you could tell that someone poured gasoline or something because of the way it was burning. It was just burning crazy," said Stephen Baker, who called 911.
WJZ has learned the surveillance cameras at the school captured two students, eight and nine years old, lighting the playground on fire and shooting video of it with their cell phones.
"Those are my friends and I want them at the school with me to have fun but when I found out that it was them, I was like, `uh...'" said nine-year-old Clarence Johnson.
The playground at the school was just rebuilt in 2013. WJZ was there when volunteers helped put up the $26,000 state-of-the-art structure that parents had prayed for.
"When I told the parents, you could hear the cheers. They were so excited," said principal Mary Donnelly.
Now that excitement is extinguished and two young kids are facing charges.
"Now kids are ruining the future for other kids who could still come play on this park," Mason said.
Those two children have been charged as juveniles.
That playground was rebuilt as part of a service project by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
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