A city Parks Department employee arrested for giving a 10-year-old Staten Island girl a lighter — which she used to detonate an M-80 firework she was holding and severely injure her hand — told police he helped the child out so she could “have fun,” prosecutors said Wednesday.
The Parks worker, Joshua Moe, 24, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment after the child lost parts of her fingers on her left hand when the firework went off Tuesday evening, police said.
“I didn’t think this would have happened,” Moe told police, according to the criminal complaint. “She wanted the lighter to light a firework.”
“I wanted to make them happy and have fun,” he said.
Responding officers used a tourniquet on the girl’s hand before medics rushed her to Staten Island University Hospital North for care.
Besides losing parts of her fingers on her left hand, the child suffered a cut to her right hand and burns to her left hand and left arm, prosecutors said.
The incident happened around 7 p.m. at Gen. Douglas MacArthur Park, near Dongan Hills Ave. and Jefferson St. in Dongan Hills.
Police said the girl found the firework while playing in the park and then asked Moe to help her light it, which he allegedly did using his lighter.
Instead of issuing bail, a judge ordered Moe to be enrolled in a supervised release program which would ensure his return to court following his arraignment in Staten Island criminal court Wednesday, according to the Staten Island Advance.