TOPSHOT – A protester walks by a burning car during clashes with police in Le Port, French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on June 30, 2023, three days after a 17-year-old boy was shot in the chest by police at point-blank range in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris. A third consecutive night of violence in France sparked by the killing of a teenager by a policeman during a traffic stop has left 249 police and gendarmes injured, the interior ministry announced on June 30, 2023. (Photo by Richard BOUHET / AFP) (Photo by RICHARD BOUHET/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
3:36 PM – Saturday, March 30, 2024
A father has been charged with arson after the body of his 9-year-old son was found in a burning car.
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The burned car was discovered by police late Thursday night behind Sayreville War Memorial High School.
The Sayreville Police Department reports that Manuel Rivera, 43, the boy’s father, was outside the gasoline-soaked car with burns all over his body and a self-inflicted wound.
Around 10:45 p.m., there was a report of a fire at the school, so police were dispatched to the scene.
Rivera’s wife also called cops to report a domestic dispute, which police said led Rivera to flee their Eisenhower Drive home with the 9-year-old boy.
Rivera was taken to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for life-threatening injuries and was then charged with second-degree aggravated arson.
Superintendent Richard Labbe stated that Rivera worked for the school district and that the boy attended Sayreville Public Schools.
Labbe encouraged school members to “pray for our student” if they were religious or to send “positive thoughts” to the family.
Additional charges are pending autopsy results.
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