Teen hospitalized after attack with M80 firecracker in Detroit

DETROIT (WJBK) - A 15-year-old boy was badly hurt after a firecracker exploded in his face.

But the boy's mom says her son wasn't playing with fireworks, she says he was attacked.  Shereen Harvey recalled the frantic call she got that that her son Christopher Lacy was bleeding and badly burned.

That was the moment Harvey learned her 15-year-old had been hit with a firecracker, an M-80, in the face.

"I couldn't explain the feeling that a mom has when your son ... you don't know what is going on," she said. "Who would just ride past and throw a bomb on anybody, a human being. I don't care if you are a bad person, a good person, nobody deserves that."

Harvey says Thursday at 9:30 p.m. her son was outside their home on Detroit's Three Mile Drive. Neighbors and children were outside at the time of the incident.

Her son had just finished giving his dog some water then started to walk across the street when Harvey says a silver or gray Impala quickly drove up.

"He came up to the curb and they said 'Here' and just threw it," she said. "It grazed him, he had a big knot on his head, it messed up his right eye, his leg and his fingers."

Harvey says when the firecracker hit her son in the head; he reacted by putting his hands up. The explosion caused him to lose his vision in his right eye and his hearing on the same side.

Lacy is still in the hospital while Harvey says her son may need surgery to repair his hands and fingers. Although his hearing hasn't returned his vision is, slowly.

"I'm thankful he'll be able to see," she said. "It could've damaged his sight for good."

Detroit police are investigating. Harvey says her son can only describe the car as a gray or silver Impala as a 2008 to 2013 model with tinted windows and without rims. He said it also had a black door on the front passenger side.

"He said the window was only half-way down," Harvey said. "He couldn't get a good description of the guys."

Harvey says as her son recovers she's afraid to even let her other young children outside this Fourth of July weekend and hopes this can be a warning for everyone.

"Be careful," she said. "Don't mess with those kids or teens, don't mess with firecrackers, they are dangerous."