A fire on Saturday consumed the home of Toya Graham, the Baltimore mom who attracted widespread attention last year from a video showing her slapping and dragging her teenage son away from a Freddie Gray protest-related riot,WBFF-TV reports.
Graham told The Baltimore Sun that she was at work when her 18-year-old daughter called via FaceTime to tell her that the house was ablaze. She rushed to the three-story home, where her family had been living since April, and found firefighters trying to put out the blaze. The police and an ambulance were also at the scene.
Her son, Michael Singleton – the one she pulled from the uprising following Freddie Gray’s death last year – told WBFF that he accidentally started the fire while cooking.
“I had stepped away to the bathroom real quick. When I got back, there was smoke and fire coming from the pan,” he told the news outlet.
His attempt to put out the grease fire with water only made it worse. “I should have been more careful when I was cooking. Now, it’s like, what we’re going to do now?” he lamented.
Graham, in tears, told WBFF that she didn’t have renter’s insurance.
“I’m tired of the struggle, I feel broken. You try to hold on because you try to do everything, you try to be strong for your children. You try, but this is a lot,“ she said.
So far, a GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $26,000 to help the displaced family.
SOURCE: WBFF-TV, Baltimore Sun | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter
