The boy's grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, explained to Valley News that her biracial grandson was playing in a yard when a group of white teens began throwing sticks and rocks at his legs while they calling him racial slurs before the rope from a tire swing ended up wrapped around his neck.
Slattery claims:
"The [teenagers] said, 'Look at this,' supposedly putting the rope around their necks. One boy said to [Slattery's grandson], 'Let's do this,' and then pushed him off the picnic table and hung him."
There were no adults around when the frightening moment took