KID ‘PRANK’ HORROR
Girl’s face badly burned as pal’s hot water stunt goes wrong
A SCHOOLGIRL prank gone gruesomely wrong left an 11-year-old Bronx girl hospitalized with severe facial burns — and her rage-filled mom bent on revenge.
Relatives of hospitalized Jamoneisha Merritt called Thursday for arrests in the scalding of the girl at her friend’s Bronx apartment.
The victim’s mother, Ebony Merritt, appeared outside the home of Shernett Panton and her 12-year-old daughter Aniya Grant Stuart, spewing obscenities and threats.
“I’m going to cut your face, you f---ing b---h!” Merritt screamed at Panton. “I’m going to burn your f---ing house down! You let this happen to my daughter!”
The burned girl’s mother allegedly choked Aniya over the Monday morning incident and punched her 14-year-old big sister Shawna in the face, according to the Panton family.
“Now I’m getting text messages from her nieces or maybe her cousins,” Shawna said. “It makes me feel scared.”
Jamoneisha, who also goes by Jamoni, remained hospitalized Thursday at Harlem Hospital, where Ebony Merritt said the prognosis was looking up. Her daughter had second-degree burns on her shoulders and face.
“She’s doing much better,” Merritt said. “She’s in good spirits. She saw her face; she’s OK with it. But she’s still traumatized.”
The indignant parent, in her rant earlier in the day, made it clear that she blamed Panton for the burning.
“You wanted her to burn so she’d look like an ugly b---h like you,” Merritt screamed.
Police made no arrests in the scalding. Panton denied allegations that her daughters were guilty of bullying Jamoneisha.
According to Panton, the dousing of Jamoneisha with boiling water was part of a battle of pranks gone horribly wrong between the two young friends.
Aniya was so distraught by the injuries she inflicted on Jamoneisha that she tried to kill herself, according to Panton.
She remained under a suicide watch at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center after trying to stab herself with a knife, according to her mom.
“They always prank each other,” Panton said. “My daughter was sleeping and Jamoni poured cold water on Aniya. My daughter was like, ‘OK, if you’re gonna do a prank on me, I’m gonna prank you back.’
“But my daughter — I don’t know what she was thinking — boiled hot water and poured it on Jamoni’s face.”
Panton was sleeping around 4 a.m. when the bizarre incident occurred as Jamoni slept on a couch in the family living room. Shawna said she heard the screaming from her bedroom, and they put cold water on the injured girl’s face before dialing 911.
According to Panton, the injured girl was a close friend of her daughter Aniya and basically moved into their apartment about a month ago.
“What she did was really wrong, but it’s too much right now,” said Panton, 34. “My daughter is 12. Everybody makes mistakes.”