The death of a 9-year-old boy is under investigation after he was found dead in a car in Sayreville, New Jersey (Picture: Sayreville War Memorial High School)
A young boy was found dead inside a car outside of a high school after his father allegedly enraged from an argument doused it with gasoline.
Manuel Rivera, 43, left home with his nine-year-old son after a domestic dispute around 10.45pm on Thursday with a female victim who is the mother of the boy and called cops, according to the Sayerville Police Department.
Authorities discovered Rivera ‘with burns to his body and a self-inflicted wound’ on Washington Road close to the back of Sayerville War Memorial High School, stated the police department on Facebook.
‘Next to Rivera a vehicle was located that was doused with gasoline and on fire,’ wrote police.
The boy’s father was found alive but with burns to his body and a self-inflicted wound (Picture: News 12)
The body of a deceased child was in the vehicle, an initial investigation revealed.
Rivera was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for treatment.
He has been charged with second-degree aggravated arson and other charges against him are pending the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report on the boy.
The boy was not immediately identified.
Authorities also received a call for a fire near Sayreville War Memorial High School
‘On this Good Friday, Sayreville is waking up to learn of a horrific incident that occurred overnight that shakes our community to its core: the loss of a nine-year-old child, allegedly at the hands of a parent,’ stated Mayor Kennedy O’Brien.
‘Any time such senseless violence involves one of our children, it gravely affects all of Sayreville.’
Both the boy’s death and an act of aggravated arson are under investigation, announced Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Sayreville police Chief Daniel Plumacker.
Authorities received a 911 call reporting a fire near the high school, as well as a call for a related domestic dispute on Eisenhower Drive.
A suspect, Manuel Rivera, was taken to the hospital where he was treated for burns and a self-inflicted wound (Picture: Sayreville Emergency)
Rivera is believed to have been employed with Sayerville Public Schools, ABC 7 reported.
Anyone with information or CCTV on the crime is urged to contact the police department.
Sayerville is about 30 miles southwest of New York City.
The boy’s death comes about three months after an elementary school teacher’s body was found stuffed in the trunk of a burned car after an explosion at a home in a suburb of Los Angeles, California.
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