Mother furious after bystander films son, 8, who caught on fire while others watch and don't help

Sanquon King, 8, is now in a critical condition after he accidentally set himself on fire. (Images: WSB-TV)
Sanquon King, 8, is now in a critical condition after he accidentally set himself on fire. (Images: WSB-TV)

The mother of an 8-year-old boy who caught on fire is outraged after people did nothing but watch and at least one bystander started filming him rather than helping extinguish the flames.

Willtrivius King said adults stood motionless and doing nothing after her son, Sanquon, accidentally set himself on fire while playing with a lighter outside the Covington Housing Authority units in Covington, Ga.

“How can you do that, just to watch?” she told local Atlanta television station WSB-TV. “Like grown people standing watching and not trying to help. That’s cruelty to kids. You don’t do kids like that.”

The boy is now in a critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital with burns to more than 38 percent of his body, the TV station reported.

Sanquon’s mother expressed disgust after people stood by and filmed the boy screaming for help, rather than helping him. (Image: WSB-TV)
Sanquon’s mother expressed disgust after people stood by and filmed the boy screaming for help, rather than helping him. (Image: WSB-TV)

A video of the incident shared to social media showed Sanquon running and screaming for help, and one woman can be heard telling him to “lay down in the grass and roll.”

King would not be alive if two bystanders didn’t happen to see what was going on and stepped in to help.

“They actually saved my baby’s life,” King told WSB-TV.

King said Crystal Parks and Cynterra Jordan took her son’s shoes off and rolled him on the ground.

The mother said they told her they couldn’t let a child burn, and for that the mother is eternally grateful.

“I can’t wait to see them, hug them, kiss them, love on them. I’m so thankful for them,” King said.

While King wants the people who didn’t help and the other individual who recorded and shared the video to face charges, the Covington Police Department said no one is expected to be charged for the incident.

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