A Parks Department worker handed a 10-year-old girl a lighter she used to ignite a M-80 that blew off her finger in a Staten Island park on Tuesday, cops and sources said.

Joshua Moe, 24, allegedly obliged when the girl asked him for a lighter inside General Douglas MacArthur Park on Jefferson Street in Dongan Hills around 6:40 p.m., police said.

The child then lit the illegal firecracker which exploded and left her with severe injuries to her left hand – including at least one finger blown off, law enforcement sources said.

A Parks Department worker handed a 10-year-old girl a lighter she used to ignite a M-80 that blew off her finger in a Staten Island park, cops and sources said.

Moe allegedly admitted to police that he gave the girl the lighter to ignite the firecracker, according to the criminal complaint.

“I didn’t think this would have happened,” Moe allegedly said to police.

“She wanted to light a firework,” he added, according to the complaint. “I wanted to make them happy and have fun.”

The girl’s mom called 911 and she was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North for treatment, cops said.

The girl’s mom called 911 and she was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North for treatment.

The child was missing parts of her fingers on her left hand and was bleeding, the court documents state.

She also sustained a laceration on her right hand and burns to her left hand, right arm and torso.

Moe was arrested around 7:10 p.m. Tuesday and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, police said.

The child was missing parts of her fingers on her left hand and was bleeding

The girl, described as just a “normal kid,” found the firework in a nearby baseball field and brought it to the park where she asked people to light it, according to family friend Tyesha Thomas.

“Everyone was telling her no except the one person who works for the park,” Thomas recalled to The Post outside Gen. Douglas MacArthur Park.

“He was standing with her. Her blood was on his shirt,” she said of Moe.

Thomas said that the little girl remains in the hospital and will need plastic and physical therapy for her injuries.

“She’s not ok. She’s never going to be ok. Half of one of her fingers is missing,” she added.

Thomas’s husband said that the child was unable to see out of her eyes this morning because the explosion blew off her eyelashes.

Moe was arraigned Wednesday and the judge freed him on supervised release, according to prosecutors.

“It’s unconscionable and defies all logic but Endangering the Welfare of a Child is not bail eligible in [New York State],” the Staten Island DA’s office said in a statement to The Post.

The city Parks Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/08/12/us-news/nyc-parks-worker-helped-girl-10-light-m80-that-blew-off-her-finger-sources/