Mother doused her daughter in gasoline, tried to light her on fire for bad grade, police say
A 44-year-old Seattle woman is facing felony charges of first-degree assault and harassment, with domestic violence qualifiers, after her daughter claimed that she hit her with a tire iron, whipped her with a phone charger, poured gasoline over her and waved a lighter in her face earlier this month, all over a bad test grade.
Lisa Kyles has been arrested and charged in King County Superior Court, where she pled not guilty to the crimes, according to SeattlePI.com.
According to court documents, the incident took place on the evening of Nov. 10, when Kyles’s daughter, who is 14 years old, told her sister, Rashaad Kyles-Brooks, that she had done poorly on a school test while they were in the family’s van. Kyles-Brooks, 22 years old, then began berating the child, eventually hitting her “18-20 times,” while Kyles was also in the van.
When Kyles-Brooks left for work later in the evening, she told Kyles, “You handle this,” according to the child’s statement to police. Kyles and the child continued to argue about her grades, before Kyles used a tire iron, phone charger and jumper cable to hit her daughter on the legs and arms, per police reports.
Kyles then grabbed a gasoline container in the backseat and poured it over her daughter, then waved a lighter in her face and attempted to use it to ignite the girl’s clothes. At that point, the girl left the van and ran towards another woman in the parking lot, according to eyewitnesses, saying “help me, she's trying to set me on fire!”
The woman said she could smell gasoline on the child but did not see any of the alleged abuse. She then confronted Kyles, who threatened to light her and her apartment on fire, according to the woman. The woman also said she smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Kyles, who left saying she would return with her son.
The child was transported to a hospital for treatment and then put in the care of Child Protective Services, according to court documents. Kyles was arrested and said that while she did hit her daughter with a closed fist, she did not use a tire iron, jumper cable or phone charger and did not pour gasoline on her or threaten her. She also said the dispute arose not because of grades, but because she found suggestive pictures and messages sent from her daughter to older men she did not know, according to a police statement.
Kyles is currently being held on $150,000 bond and because of the domestic violence qualifier added to her charges is prohibited from contacting her daughter. She has been accused of abuse in the past, per court documents. There has been no reports of whether Kyles-Brooks has been arrested, and she has not been charged in court.
This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Mother doused her daughter in gasoline, tried to light her on fire for bad grade, police say."