Investigators said one of the teens doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and Mendez flicked a lighter at him in retaliation for reporting an attempted bicycle theft Sunday night.

"This group of kids thought that because the kid may have snitched him out and turned him in because they were trying to steal his dad's bike, they felt, in their mind, it was OK to set him on fire," Sheriff Al Lamberti said.

Detectives said Brewer skipped school and went to the apartment complex to visit a friend at the time of the attack.

"A couple of them last night were laughing about it," Sgt. Steve Feeley said of the suspects.


So often we are pointing fingers at the horrors that people do to one another in other countries, before we do that we should ask ourselves what is going wrong in our own! This is just plain sick, and very sad.

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