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BALTIMORE — Black soot covers the two-story house like a dark shadow. The roof has collapsed, and a bright red sign proclaims the home has been condemned.
Until a few weeks ago, when the riots roiled Baltimore, this house at Hilton Street and Piedmont Avenue was home for Laporsha Lawson and her severely disabled son, Khai'Lee Sampson.
The liquor store adjacent to Lawson's home started burning about 1 a.m. on April 28. Lawson awoke, raced up the stairs to grab Khai'Lee and rushed him to her parents' home about a block away, moments before flames engulfed the house.
"They took everything from my child," said Lawson, 28.
The wheelchair customized for Khai'Lee's small body, the back brace that helps him sit upright, the machine that pumps oxygen into his lungs when he stops breathing at night — all were destroyed. So were the supplies for his feeding tube, his clothes, even his new swing.
As Lawson cradled the 7-year-old on her parents' sofa recently, she said she felt betrayed by her neighborhood.
While she understands the rioters' anger at the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who suffered a spinal injury in police custody, she can't understand why people would destroy their own community.
"Everybody wants justice for Freddie Gray," said Lawson. "But what about justice for Khai'Lee?"
Original post found heremsn.com/en-us/news/us/a-mom-a-disabled-son-and-a-home-that-blazed-amid-baltimores-riots/ar-BBjZTu7?ocid=HPCDHP