Fund Set Up for Family of Boy Injured by Brick

A Coto de Caza family has started a trust fund for the family of Bryan Donis, the 5-year-old who was critically injured Wednesday by a brick thrown from a freeway overpass in Huntington Beach.

Fred Dezwart, a 47-year-old accountant, said he started the fund with the former director of a day-care center attended by Bryan and Dezwart’s 12-year-old daughter.

Dezwart said he was shocked when he heard reports of the crime but didn’t realize that he knew the victims until his wife called.

“We’re just friends of the family, and we’re trying to do what we can,” he said.

So far, Dezwart and others have contributed about $300 to the fund, which he said will help pay for medical and other expenses.

“Hopefully, that’s just going to be a drop in the bucket,” he said.

Bryan’s parents, Juan and Jeanette Donis, “seemed genuinely pleased” when told of the fund, Dezwart said.

The trust fund is the second fund to be established in Bryan’s name. On Monday, a retired San Diego County physician opened an account at Washington Mutual Bank to raise money for a reward for information leading to the conviction of the brick thrower.

Bryan was riding with his parents south on the San Diego Freeway near the McFadden Avenue overpass early Wednesday when a five-pound paving brick smashed through the windshield, fracturing the child’s skull in at least two places and breaking his mother’s arm.

A spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center in Orange said Monday that the boy remains in critical condition, although he has shown some improvement.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact the California Highway Patrol at (714) 892-4426.

Donations to the trust fund can be sent to Sun Country Bank, care of Bryan Donis, 30100 Town Center Drive, Suite Q, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677.