A heart-wrenching lawsuit has emerged, alleging that a five-year-old Cub Scout with developmental disabilities was viciously attacked by an older boy while the scoutmaster was momentarily outside, engrossed in vaping. The child’s family is deeply upset by the incident.
The young scout, who requires special care, endured severe and lasting injuries after a 12-year-old, considerably larger in stature and known for bullying him, allegedly assaulted him during a Cub Scout gathering held at a church in Ohio.
“I heard him scream for the first time, and that sound is something I will never be able to forget,” the boy’s mother, Breanna Russell, emotionally recounted to WTOL 11.
Identified in legal documents only as D.R., the child was reportedly attacked during an indoor event featuring a playful “snowball” fight with artificial snowballs at a Cub Scout meeting of Pack 422 at First Christian Church in Bowling Green on December 4, 2025.
According to WTOL11, while the scoutmaster took a break outdoors to vape, the older boy, named L.C. in the lawsuit, allegedly struck D.R. in the head as he bent to pick up a snowball. The attack escalated with L.C. reportedly kicking D.R. in the stomach, causing him to fall, and then stomping on his leg, resulting in a serious fracture of the thigh.
He proceeded to kick him in the stomach, knocking him over, and stomp on his leg — causing a debilitating thigh fracture, the lawsuit claimed.
Russell said the attack occurred while she had taken her eyes off her son momentarily, and she was alerted by the sounds of his screams.
“When he was yelling like that, we just knew something was so wrong, he was so hurt,” she said.
The family is suing the Boy Scouts of America, the scoutmaster and L.C.’s father, alleging that L.C. was improperly supervised given his history of aggression toward D.R.
“Defendant L.C. has a history of physically attacking Plaintiff D.R. and had been told to keep his hands to himself on numerous occasions prior to the incident in this Complaint,” the lawsuit claimed.
D.R. was rushed to the emergency room at Wood County Hospital and had to receive emergency surgery to treat his oblique fracture of the proximal femoral diaphysis, which the lawsuit described as a “serious and painful break in his thighbone.”
The young boy had flexible titanium elastic nails surgically inserted into his femur on Dec. 5, 2025, in order to stabilize the fracture.
He suffered so much pain from his injuries and the surgery he required morphine and other pain medications, per the lawsuit.
D.R. was forced into a cast that significantly limited his mobility and was unable to attend school as a result of his injuries, the lawsuit claimed.
“He’s a very energetic, happy little guy who was so proud to be part of Cub Scouts,” Russel said.
The parents claim that L.R. will suffer lifelong physical injuries as well as psychological injuries as a result of the attack.
