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Posted: Friday, 03 July 2009 8:20AM
Boys will not face charges for burning 9-year-old
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CROWN POINT, Ind. (STNG) -- There will be no charges filed against three boys who allegedly set 9-year-old Joshua Judkins ablaze while playing with fire in a wooded area in Hammond, Ind., last month, the Lake County Prosecutor's office said Thursday.
Judkins, a Gary, Ind., third-grader, told police he was playing with three older boys near his mother's apartment in the Kennedy Crossing apartment complex when one of them doused him with rubbing alcohol and lit it on fire on June 8.
The three boys turned themselves in to police four days later, while Judkins was being treated in the burn unit of John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
They told police they were lighting sticks on fire using a bottle of rubbing alcohol they found in a first aid kit, and that Judkins was standing over the bottle and accidentally caught fire.
Judkins and the three boys, ages 15, 14 and 13, were the only witnesses.
Judkins' parents said the boys' story didn't match the location of the burns on Judkins' body, which were almost entirely on his upper body, and called the act a "hate crime" that Hammond police were slow to investigate.
"It's been four days [from the day Judkins was burned] and police didn't do anything," said Joshua's father, Elijah Judkins. "Of course they're all telling the same story."
The older boys all were white, and had met Judkins the day before he was burned and apparently played with Judkins and some of his older siblings. Judkins is black.
Judkins told investigators the boys invited him into the woods to build a fire, and that they "freaked out" and ran when he caught fire.
One of the boys may have tried to help pull Judkins out of his burning shirt.
Judkins rolled on the ground to put out the flames, then ran, screaming, to his mother's apartment.
Hammond police officials said they started their investigation as soon as they arrived at the scene.
They turned over their investigation to juvenile court prosecutors two weeks ago.
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Copyright 2009 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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