A New Hampshire boy was hospitalized after teenagers tried to hang him by the neck, according to his family -- some of whom posted photos of the child's wounds on Facebook to spread the word about the attack.
The 8-year-old child had to be flown to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after the Aug. 28 incident, according to NH1.
“My son is being flown to Dartmouth after a 14-year-old kid decided to hang him from a tree,” Cassandra Merlin, the boy’s mother wrote on Facebook. “I don’t care if this was a so called accident or not. My son almost died because of some little ... teenage kids. Quincy is doing okay, just keep him in your prayers.”
The boy's grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, told the Valley News it wasn't an accident. She said her grandson was playing in a backyard with a group of older teenagers in their neighborhood when the teens began throwing sticks and rocks at the boy and calling him racial slurs. According to Valley News, the teens had referred to Slattery's biracial grandson with racial slurs before. She alleged the incident escalated when the teens grabbed a rope from an old tire swing, draped it around the boy's neck and pushed him off a picnic table, where he hung.
"One boy said, 'Let's do this,' and then pushed him off the picnic table and hung him," Slattery told Valley News.
The boy swung back and forth by his neck three times before he was able to remove the rope from his neck, according to Valley News. He sustained cuts and rope burns.
New Hampshire police are still investigating. While Claremont police Chief Mark Chase would confirm that the department was investigating “an incident,” he would not give more detail than that, as the alleged victims and perpetrators are all under 18.
He did confirm that the alleged perpetrators were teenagers. Chase also said that the intention of obscuring names and other information is done in accordance with New Hampshire law.
The boy's mother has vowed to get justice for the alleged assault and in a Facebook post said, "My only intentions of making Quincy's story public is (to) show this country that racism does in fact still exist. That it is still so alive that our children are living in a world of hate. (They are) being exposed to all types of hatred."
Slattery said her grandson is still recovering emotionally and physically.
"I do believe he does not want to believe that he was being hurt purposefully," she told Valley News. "That is the kind of kid he is."
Read more at Valley News.
Brianna Chambers contributed to this report.
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