Jerome Lynch, NY man, threw acid into his daughter's face, police say

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - A man hurled acid in his daughter's face in a gruesome attack that sent her into a Brooklyn street screaming for help as her skin peeled and her clothes disintegrated, police and witnesses said.

As his 49-year-old daughter sat on his couch on Saturday afternoon, Jerome Lynch abruptly left the room, returned with a cup of what she thought was water and doused her with it, she later told a cousin, according to the Daily News.

Then the corrosive burning started, and Darlene Lynch ran outside as her clothes disintegrated and her skin fell from her face, witnesses said.

"You could see the smoke coming off her body," Clarissa Shakespeare told the newspaper. "Everyone was just traumatized and scared. Her skin looked like melting wax."

Bystanders poured water on the victim, helped pull away her clothes and covered her with a sheet, witnesses said.

Her 69-year-old father was arrested on an assault charge. Information on his arraignment and lawyer weren't immediately.

Darlene Lynch is the main caregiver for her father, who uses a wheelchair and has been deteriorating mentally in recent years, said a cousin, Dominique Goodwin, who was in Brooklyn on a visit from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The daughter was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.