Olympia, WA – A six-year-old boy was brutally assaulted when he tried to stand up for a friend who was being bullied.

The attack occurred on Aug. 22, when Carter English tried to intervene on behalf of a friend who was being beaten up by neighborhood kids, KOMO reported.

“They were just bullying him, like beating him up,” Carter said. “I just told them to stop… and then they did it to me.”

The group of children around the same age as Carter used rocks and sticks to beat him, KOMO reported.

They also rubbed sawdust in the six year old’s eyes.

Carter ended up with a lacerated eye, a broken arm that may require surgery, and numerous cuts and bruises on his head and face, according to KOMO.

Olympia police investigated and identified the five-year-old boy who was behind both brutal attacks. Police planned to get social services involved.

Police said they presented the case to the prosecutor’s office but they declined to press criminal charges because of the ages of everyone involved, KOMO reported.

Under Washington State law, kids under the age of eight are incapable of committing crimes.

Carter had surgery on Friday morning to repair the damage to his eye.

“It’s been hell,” his mother, Dana English, said.

“I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten. I can’t do anything. I can’t even leave his side,” she told KOMO.

She’s horrified by the consequences her son faced for doing the right thing on behalf of a friend. And she and Carter said they’re both worried that it could happen again.

“I really don’t know what I’m hoping for other than for people to know that this is not acceptable,” his mother said. “Bullying is not okay. There’s no reason to bully someone ever."