Employee who set teen on fire at Riverview party store sentenced

Before the man who lit him on fire last year was sentenced, the now-18-year-old Riverview man told the court he prayed no one, including his attacker, had to experience the pain he went through in the past 13 months.

Mazin Shaya, an employee at Victor’s Market in Riverview, lit the teen on fire when he came into the party store during his lunch break at Riverview Community High School in June 2022. Police said witnesses indicated the boy's backpack was leaking and soaked in lighter fluid and Shaya wanted to see if the fluid was flammable. He held the lighter near the teen and lit it, igniting his shirt.

"I remember few things of the incident," the teen said Friday during Shaya's sentencing hearing. "Mazin said the burn only looked like a sunburn. ... It was as if I was in front of evil itself."

Shaya was sentenced to two years of probation, the first 63 days of which will be served in the Wayne County Jail. He has to partake in cognitive behavioral therapy and do 80 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to being a disorderly person, a deal that was made so the teen and his family could receive more money in a civil case to pay for the teen's medical bills, which has already been settled.

"The final charges certainly are not proportional with the actions in the case," Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Joshua Holman said during the sentencing hearing, "It is a bit tragic ..., but it is the best course of action for (the teen) and his future."

Holman said the family was in a unique position where the lower the criminal penalty was, the more civil damages they would be able to receive in the civil lawsuit.

Shaya originally was charged with attempted murder and assault with the intent to cause great bodily harm.

"I’m sorry to the family, I'm sorry to the court, I'm sorry about this incident that happened, it was no more than an accident," Shaya said before he was sentenced.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Van Houten said she was limited in what she could do because of the sentencing agreement, which prosecutors said was in the teen's best interest. Van Houten indicated it was a horrible case and nothing that happened in court Friday would take away the pain and suffering the teen went through.

"I hope that you and your family can find some peace and start to move on and try to put this horrible horrible set of events behind you," Van Houten said. "I hope that (the teen) heals as best he can and hopefully at some point the pain will subside."  

Teen, family five victim impact statements

His mother talked about how her son is an amazing child who is thoughtful, generous and kind.

"I will not forget the statement he made the third day in the hospital," his mother said. "'I'm glad it happened to me and not my friends because I would never want them to feel the pain I am in now.'"

She said she has seen no sympathy or regard for her family come from Shaya. She said Shaya, nor anyone else in the store, called for help for her son. The teen called his dad in a panic, and when Shaya got on the phone, his attitude was lighthearted and happy-go-lucky, the teen's father said, something he will never forget.

"Knowing that a child is cloaked with lighter fluid, why in God's name would you light it?" his father asked. "This is not an accident, normal human beings do not commit these atrocities."

When the teen's mother arrived to pick her son up, his body was leaking fluids excessively and his skin was falling off in her truck, she said.

"It was a trauma I wish on no one, even the worst of human beings," she said. "I was literally living a nightmare … watching my child go through some of the most horrific, traumatic pain a person can go through."

The teen said he wonders to this day what would cause someone to do what Shaya did to him. He said everything he loved — sports, being outdoors, enjoying his senior year of high school — was stripped away when Shaya activated that lighter. He'll have PTSD, anxiety and pain for the rest of his life, the teen said.

The teen is still receiving treatments and may need more skin grafts done in the future, his mother said.

kberg@detroitnews.com