Sep 25, 2008 8:00 pm US/Eastern
Long Island Teen Arrested After Gasoline Attack
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBS) ―
Police on Long Island have made an arrest in a gasoline attack. Detectives said Friday the suspect tried to burn a teenage boy alive, and in doing so nearly set an entire apartment building on fire.
Doused with 20 ounces of gasoline from a plastic container, and chased by the perpetrator holding a lighted road flare torch, police said the 14-year-old victim ran down an apartment hallway screaming for help.
"The next thing I know he was hollering, 'Grandmother, open the door!' So I opened the door with a 6-month-old baby in my hands when he threw the gasoline," Edith Gilreath said.
Gasoline went everywhere, the victim's grandmother said. Babysitting at the time, she grabbed her grandson and soaked him in the shower and frantically calling police, who arrested 18-year-old Matthew Taylor. They said if the torch had successfully lighted, the entire complex on Terrace Avenue could have gone up in flames.
"It could have resulted in an extreme catastrophe for the building and its occupants -- 60 units, 100 people," said Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Raymond Cote.
The suspect's mother refuted the charges.
"All that dousing, gas, trying to set door on fire, that's false, false," Alonda Taylor said.
The suspect's parents said their son is a special education student. They said he was reacting to being bullied and taunted after a fight broke out between the suspect and the victim inside Hempstead High School.
"When he cried to the school for help they didn't come to his aid," stepfather Leon Wade said. "All they did was suspend him."
In fact, both Matthew Taylor and the 14-year-old victim were sent home two hours later.
"That's serious what he did. The gasoline … he could have set my brother on fire. And today we could have been burying my brother," the victim's sister said.
Neighbors told CBS 2 HD the community along Terrace Avenue has been much safer lately, and said they're upset at the seriousness of this crime.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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