Neglectful Bridgeport Mom Makes $600K On GoFundMe Scam After 6 Year Old Son Burns Face, Makes Up Lie About Other Boys Lighting Him On Fire

 

*Editors Note* We discussed this story on the Weekend Live Show (10:20)

This is 6 year old Dominick Krankall and his parents Aaron Kranall and Maria Rua from Bridgeport, CT.

 

They live next door to a woman named Laura Giacobbe, and their kids play together regularly.

In April their boys were playing in the backyard when Dominick burned his face. Maria and Aaron immediately blamed Laura’s 8 year old Stefano, claiming that the incident was an act of bullying.

A 6-year-old boy was hospitalized in Connecticut with severe burns to his face and leg, which his parents said were the result of bullying.

“My 6-year-old son looked at me, and he said, ‘Daddy, he poured gasoline on a ball, and he threw it directly into my face, and he caught my face on fire with a fireball,'” the boy’s father, Aaron Krankall, said.

The incident happened Sunday afternoon. Dominick Krankall was playing in the backyard with the 8- and 11-year-old sons of the family that owns the house on Louisiana Avenue, in which the Krankalls rent an apartment. 

“I heard him screaming, ‘Mommy help me, they set me on fire,'” mom Maria Rua said.

“My son has been bullied by this child for a year,” she said. “That day, they purposefully threw a gasoline-saturated ball that they lit on fire at my son’s face. They called his name so he would turn around. They threw it at Dominick and left him outside alone to die.”

She says Dominick suffered second and third-degree burns to his face and leg. 

“His face is about twice the size it normally is,” Rua said. “He’s swollen with blisters. You can’t even see his beautiful eyes anymore.”

His father said that last month, Dominick suffered a concussion after being pushed by the same 8-year-old child.

“They can go outside, they’ll be playing basketball for 5 or 10 minutes, and everything seems grand,” Aaron Krankall said. “And then maybe 10, 15 minutes goes by and someone gets pushed, someone gets tripped, someone gets hurt. And this has been going on and on, and I am so sick of it…I will not stop, though, until this kid gets put away because this is not OK. I need justice for my son.”

The two parents were all over the news, garnering sympathy for their son while simultaneously blaming Laura’s 8 year old son.

“It’s not like he accidentally was playing was gasoline and then my son walked through it.”

Maria’s daughter Kayla Deegen started a GoFundMe that raised $600K, called “Justice for Dominick…..STOP BULLYING!”

They really sold the idea that the incident was the culmination of a prolonged period of bullying by an 8 year old who had been tormenting Dominick relentlessly. Maria also blamed Laura for neglecting the kids in order to make Tik Toks. As a result they not only built up a lot of support for Dominick, but also turned the mob against the other boy’s family, prompting calls for “street justice.”

 

 

Just like Dasha Kelly last August, Maria Rua wouldn’t have been able to raise $600K without help from the media and politicians. The Mayor and first responders organized a parade outside of the hospital where Dominick was being treated, and the Yankees gave his family box seat tickets and let him come on the field before a game in May.

Doninick and Maria did an interview on Fox 61 News on May 12, and talked about what happened.

“If he didn’t roll and put the fire out, I think we all know what could’ve happened.”\

Remember that quote.

Maria and Dominick both talked about how their life changed for the better so quickly as a result of the “bullying” incident.

“It’s helped Dominick a lot, it’s helped us a lot,” said Maria.

“They helped me get a house,” Dominick said.

Normally burn victims are left with horrible scars for the rest of their lives that leave their faces unrecognizable. Dominick is very lucky because he appears to have recovered quickly thanks to the great work done by doctors at the hospital.

 

But in order to garner sympathy they mainly shared images of his face wrapped in bandages, which made people believe he would be permanently disfigured.

 

There’s a few more problems too. For starters, Maria was the one who was supposed to be watching the kids in her backyard, but she left them unsupervised. Then last week surveillance video came out showing the boys playing with fire and gasoline in a Bridgeport backyard of broken dreams, but no bullying whatsoever.

You couldn’t design a more deadly white trash backyard for kids if you tried. Hansel and Gretel were safer in the gingerbread house than those kids were in that backyard. It was like a wet dream for curious, unsupervised boys with no concept of how easy it is to die. Count the hazards:

Pool, motorcycles, gas cans, shovels, rakes – there’s like a million and one ways dumb kids could kill themselves back there. Good thing no adults were supervising them!

If you weren’t told what language these people were speaking, what country would you guess these pictures were taken in?

That looks like a Bosnian mother and her son Bojan after their house was blown up in a NATO airstrike after they salvages some appliances. But it’s actually just your average Tuesday in Bridgeport.

As you can see in the video there was no bullying, and the kids were all playing together. At one point both Stefano and Dominick brings gas cans, which for some reason are just lying around, and they pour it on a soccer ball. Naturally then the “bully” lights the ball on fire and Dominick kicks it.

Because, boys will be boys.

Almost an hour passed with no supervision, during which time the boys play with gasoline and light more stuff on fire.

 

 

What could possibly go wrong?

Look, I was once a boy. I don’t know why, but we just have this natural, innate desire to burn shit. It’s not surprising they’d do this, which is why you’d be insanely negligent not to have your eye on them at all times if you were their parent.

The video also shows Laura’s other 11 year old son using his bare bands to put the fire out that was burning Dominick’s face, saving him from much worse burns and potentially death.

You would think that Maria would be thanking Laura’s kids for heroically saving her son’s life while she neglected them in this death trap of a backyard. But remember what Maria said about the incident?

“If he didn’t roll and put the fire out, I think we all know what could’ve happened.”

The fire wasn’t put out because he rolled around. The fire was put out because Laura’s kid put it out with his hands.

“It’s not like he accidentally was playing with gasoline and then my son walked through it.”

Actually, that appears to be exactly what happened. These kids touched so much gasoline with their hands and then likely touched their faces and bodies. They were probably covered in gasoline and a spark would’ve set any of them ablaze. In the video you can see Dominick accidentally kick over a cup with gasoline in it, sparking a flame that set him on fire.

You’d think that now that video evidence shows that this whole thing was a scam that Dominick’s family would bow their heads in shame and return the money. But it looks like they used their kid to buy a new house already, so there’s probably not much left.

And I’m sorry, but that kid looks fine. I’m not minimizing what happened to him, but there are families who lost children to fires and are left with mounting medical bills who are a lot more worthy of $600K worth of stranger’s generosity.

The video is undeniable proof that this was all a scam, but the sister whose name the GoFundMe was in is gaslighting (no pun intended) and continuing to blame Laura’s kids.

“The only reason 11 year old smacked the fire out of his face was because Dom ran into him.”

That’s a funny way to say “thank you for saving my brother when my Mom was neglecting him.”

“We’ve been getting threats.”

No you haven’t. You just know that the “I got death threats” thing is what you say to distract from the facts when you’re revealed to be a fraud.

“He knows exactly what happened, my brother isn’t a liar.”

He might not be, but he’s definitely being coached to lie, and it’s paid off with a new house!

Kayla Deegan also has contradicted herself several times. First she said Dominick ran to his mother and said that the other boys lit him on fire, but later she admitted she wasn’t there.

 

The cliche Dominick Strong Facebook page is filled with idiots like this, who can’t come to terms with the fact that they were conned, continuing to defame an innocent 8 year old boy.

“We will continue to stand behind Dominick.”

No one is anti-Dominick here. We’re anti-fraud. And the fact of the matter is that his parents knowingly coached him to make up a horrible lie about an innocent child throwing a ball full of fire at Dominick’s face. Pretending that anyone who doesn’t appreciate $600K GoFundMe scams is anti-child burn victim is how these people continue to villainize the other family and enrich themselves.

“Dominick does not know how to lie.”

Oh right, he’s the only 6 year old boy in the world incapable of lying when he’s coached to do so. That settles that.

Maria is also claiming that the videos showing her son and the other boys playing with gasoline are “edited,” even though the police have seen the whole thing and said there was no bullying.

But Maria forgot to mention a few other things while lying to the media and smearing an 8 year old boy in order to enrich herself. Like how she and her “fiance” recently were on the losing side of a $60K judgement in Bridgeport Superior Housing Court, and the first payments were due a week after the GoFundMe began.

 

 

 

 

This is how they left their last place in Monroe, CT.

 

They left their Bridgeport apartment in similar condition, with mice everywhere.

Maria also had a 2013 judgment against her in Milford for owing almost $9K to the gas company.

Then again, monitoring gas isn’t really her strength.

Never would’ve guessed that these fine creatures would have guttermuppet tendencies.

Maria never would’ve been able to raise that money if she didn’t pretend that Dominick was the victim of bullying, lie about a ball covered in gasoline being lit and thrown at his face, and lie about the fire being put out because Dominick stopped, dropped, and rolled.

“This is not the first time this child has bullied and hurt my kids.”

Oh really? Then why did they have sleepovers together, and appear to be inseperable from Laura’s whole family?

Maria knew full well that a negligent mother whose kid accidentally catches on fire wouldn’t make headlines and thus wouldn’t garner sympathy or donations. People are also more motivated to donate when there is a clearly defined villain, and in this case it was the deranged 8 year old boy and his enabling, negligent mother. That’s why she had to play up the lie that Dominick was tormented by Laura’s kids for over a year, and why she continues to post old pictures of her son after the incident.

But the fact of the matter is that Dominick got like this because she doesn’t clean her backyard or supervise her kids, he’s alive because of the heroic kids that she’s sending mobs after, and he recovered so quickly because other people pay for the quality healthcare Dominick received. As a result of her failures as a parent Maria raised $600K from gullible idiots who eat up anything the corrupt corporate media feeds to them.