12-Year-Old Throws Drain Cleaner At Infants

Police arrested a 12-year-old Jackson Heights youth on July 22 after he sprayed and tossed liquid Drano onto a group of women and infant children inside a Jackson Heights playground.

Police said the 12-year-old was with a group of young toughs who ran amok inside the Junction Playground on 34th Avenue at Junction Boulevard at about 8 p.m. on Sunday evening, hurling and spraying the caustic drain cleaner that burned two infant girls and several adults.

According to police a 6-month-old girl was splashed on the face with the chemical while her 34- year-old mother was burned on the scalp and lost a swatch of hair. The drain cleaner also hit a second woman and a 4-month-old baby she was watching. Several others were treated at Elmhurst Hospital Center and released, and two more seriously burned victims were treated at the Cornell Burn Center in Manhattan, police said.

Eyewitnesses said a "whole bunch of kids" that were at a handball court in the playground started running through the park at about 8 p.m., tossing plastic soda bottles filled with some kind of liquid.

One teenager sitting near the handball court said the bottles bounced through the air, spilling on the victims. "It sounded like a bomb went off when the bottles hit the ground," the teen said.

Police sources said the bottles contained a caustic mix of Drano and water. Combined, the mix was toxic enough to start melting the bottles before they hit the ground.

The 12-year-old boy who tossed one of the bottles was charged with second-degree assault and released to the custody of his parents. Law enforcement sources said the youths obtained the "recipe" for the caustic mix from an Internet site that offers instruction on "How To Build A Bomb."

Police are still searching for the other youths who took part in the incident. Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call the CRIMESTOPPERS Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.- Liz Goff