A five-year-old developmentally disabled Cub Scout was savagely beaten by an older boy while the scoutmaster was outside vaping, his outraged family alleged in a lawsuit.
The special needs child sustained lifelong injuries after he was brutally assaulted by a much bigger 12-year-old who had a history of tormenting him during a Cub Scout meeting in a local Ohio church, the lawsuit.
“I heard him yell for the first time, and that is a sound that I will never, never forget as a mother,” the boy’s mother Breanna Russell told WTOL 11.
The boy, referred to in court documents as D.R. was attacked during an indoor “snowball” fight with fake snowballs at the Pack 422 meeting at First Christian Church in Bowling Green on Dec. 4, 2025.
While the scoutmaster stepped outside to vape, the 12-year-old, L.C., allegedly punched D.R. in the head when he was bending down to reach for a snowball, WTOL11 reported.
He proceeded to kick him in the stomach, knocking him over, and stomp on his leg — causing a debilitating thigh fracture, the lawsuit claimed.
Russell said the attack occurred while she had taken her eyes off her son momentarily, and she was alerted by the sounds of his screams.
“When he was yelling like that, we just knew something was so wrong, he was so hurt,” she said.
The family is suing the Boy Scouts of America, the scoutmaster and L.C.’s father, alleging that L.C. was improperly supervised given his history of aggression toward D.R.
“Defendant L.C. has a history of physically attacking Plaintiff D.R. and had been told to keep his hands to himself on numerous occasions prior to the incident in this Complaint,” the lawsuit claimed.
D.R. was rushed to the emergency room at Wood County Hospital and had to receive emergency surgery to treat his oblique fracture of the proximal femoral diaphysis, which the lawsuit described as a “serious and painful break in his thighbone.”
The young boy had flexible titanium elastic nails surgically inserted into his femur on Dec. 5, 2025, in order to stabilize the fracture.
He suffered so much pain from his injuries and the surgery he required morphine and other pain medications, per the lawsuit.
D.R. was forced into a cast that significantly limited his mobility and was unable to attend school as a result of his injuries, the lawsuit claimed.
“He’s a very energetic, happy little guy who was so proud to be part of Cub Scouts,” Russel said.
The parents claim that L.R. will suffer lifelong physical injuries as well as psychological injuries as a result of the attack.
Read the full article here
