Teen burns friend making own 'Jackass'

Nina 05-30-2003

A 13-year-old boy who wanted to make his own version of "Jackass: The Movie" threw a cup of boiling water on his best friend as he slept, causing second-degree burns, police said.

Collin Gaffney was charged with felony assault.

Police Lt. Jeff Spence said Gaffney videotaped the May 19 incident and others in earlier weeks. The boy told police he planned to make his own movie of pranks similar to "Jackass," a movie version of the defunct MTV show.

Gaffney and other boys from this Columbus suburb appear throughout the hourlong video of pranks and stunts. Spence said no one was hurt in the rest of the tape.

The MTV show and movie included a warning against trying stunts at home.

Gaffney's mother, Bernadean Decicco, said she didn't know that the boys were imitating "these stupid TV shows."

"They did many stunts that Collin could have been killed at. Fortunately, he didn't get hurt," she said.

The maximum penalty he could receive in juvenile court is confinement in a youth detention center until age 21.

The father of 14-year-old Shaka Townsend said Collin has apologized, but the Townsend family still decided to press charges.

"We felt that grounding was not appropriate to handle this," Townsend said. "We thought the authorities needed to handle it, that it needed to be official."

Wyntre

OMG, that is terrible! Is his friend going to be okay! A lot of the shows are getting a little out of hand and young viewers are taking it too seriously...That's really scary

Oracle

What a crack head...I feel so sorry for his friend. That is just messed up. And, the sad part is that it is also the people that make these stupid movies fault. I just hope that his 'friend' will be ok.

Precious

stupid fucker. omg I swear I never thought that there would be
stupid ass ppl out there well at least not that stupid

Hsoolien

Well the stupid show was made for stupid people (I myself find none of it amusing or worthwile) I say good on them though, they are ridding our gene pool of their stupid asses, maybe smarten up mankind (yeah right )