Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003092074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But behind the mask of anger, acquaintances say, the 13-year-old Brooklyn youth charged with kidnapping, beating and critically burning a younger boy is also a troubled and lonely foster child with learning disabilities, himself an outcast tormented by older youths, a school dropout who spent aimless days in the streets and playing video games.
As the police, neighbors and anguished families tried to fathom the attack, an outpouring of concern from across the city and the country - from the White House, former President Ronald Reagan, Mayor David N. Dinkins and scores of others - was expressed for the victim, David Aupont, who marked his 12th birthday Thursday in the burn unit of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
David, who suffered third-degree burns over more than half his body in the attack in a basement Wednesday morning, was listed in critical condition a day after his ordeal and was being given a 50-50 chance of survival.
"He's a fighter - he's tough," Dr. Cleon Goodwin, director of the burn unit, said of the patient. Teddy bears, balloons, presents and many telephone calls from well-wishers arrived at the hospital, but no one but his doctors and parents were allowed to see him.
The police, who had said Wednesday that David was attacked on his way to school by a youth who tried to force him to smoke crack, gave a different version of events Thursday, saying the assailant's motive had apparently been robbery and that there was no evidence that crack played a role in the case.
But it was the horror of the crime and not the motive that stunned the city and the neighborhood where David and the accused assailant - a youth whose name was withheld because of his age - were known among children, teen-agers and adults as virtual opposites.
David was described as a quiet, clean-cut boy who had emigrated from Haiti a year ago and, though unable to speak English fluently, studied hard at school and got along well with his family and neighbors.
The accused youth, however, was described as a surly boy who intimidated, beat up on and extorted money from other children, who dropped out of the sixth grade a few months ago and spent hours a day playing video games at home and in arcades.
Lisa Paulycarpe, 14, who lives down the block, said that neighborhood residents knew the youth as an isolated boy - a bully who intimidated and sometimes beat up smaller children, but who also was mistreated and scorned by older youths whose company he sought.
Deputy Inspector Joseph DeMartino, commanding officer of Brooklyn North detectives, said the 13-year-old had intercepted David and three other boys about 8:35 a.m.
While the other three boys fled, David was seized by the 13-year-old and was forced to walk several blocks and taken into a basement across the street from the suspect's apartment house.
First reports had said David was taken to a nearby garage, but this was based on a bloodhound's false tracking, the police said.
In the basement, the inspector said, the older boy beat David with his fists, stole a small amount of money from him and tied him to a radiator with strips of cloth. Then, he said, the youth doused him with an as-yet unidentified flammable liquid and set him on fire.
by CNB