Jamoniesha Merritt, 11, has suffered severe burns during a sleepover party after a 12-year-old girl poured boiling hot water over her as part of the "hot water challenge" social media stunt.

Sleepover goes wrong due to ‘hot water challenge’

It happened early Monday morning when Merritt suffered severe burns to her face, shoulders, chest and back. The action taken by the 12-year-old related to a social media Stunt dubbed the “hot water challenge,” where an unsuspecting person is dowsed with boiling water. According to police sources, there are other versions of the dangerous stunt where people willingly attempt to drink boiling water.

Jamoniesha is not aware of the damage to her yet

Starshanae Nixon, Merritt’s cousin, told The New York Post that the whole thing didn’t make sense to her, saying the pair were friends and you don’t do something like that to a person. Merritt’s uncle, 52-year-old Eugene Dalmida, told the Post that Merritt is doing well but is so far unaware of the damage that has been done to her. He said the girl is in good spirits, but that is probably only because she hasn’t seen what has happened to her yet, as medical staff at the Burn Unit at Harlem Hospital won’t let her see her face.

Dalmida said he can hardly bear to look at Merritt as it upsets him so much.

Spectrum News NY1 quotes Ebony Merritt, her mother, as saying her daughter is in serious pain. She added that Jamoniesha has been bullied previously by the girl responsible for the attack, who had invited her daughter to the sleepover. Ebony went on to say that her daughter is very sad and doesn’t understand why they did this to her when she believed them to be her friends.

She said the girl responsible had previously admitted that she doesn’t like her daughter and that she wanted to do it.

According to police, the sleepover party was held at an apartment on Concourse Village on Sunday night and Merritt was invited. However, while she was sleeping, the incident occurred with the girl suddenly forced awake from the burning pain of the boiling water.

There was, reportedly, an adult present in the home. Meanwhile the 12-year-old responsible for pouring the hot water on Merritt was taken into custody and faces charges of felony assault.

‘Hot water challenge’ has been in the headlines before

Earlier this year a similar incident happened in Florida, after eight-year-old Ki'ari Pope was dared to drink boiling water through a straw by her cousin.

The girl died from her injuries in July. In that incident, Pope and her cousin had reportedly watched YouTube videos of the “hot water challenge.”
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