A man who was expecting his first child was killed on Sunday and his brother was injured when a device they were preparing for a gender reveal party exploded in a garage in Catskills, New York, officials said.
New York State Police said soldiers responded to an account of an explosion in a house in the city of Liberty, NY, just before noon. Christopher Pekny, 28, died and his brother Michael Pekny, 27, was injured, officials said.
What triggered the explosion remains under investigation, said a State Police spokesman, Officer Steven Nevel. The device consisted of some type of pipe that was supposed to be used at a gender reveal party, but the nature of its explosive material was not yet known, he said.
Peter Pekny Jr., 34, the eldest of the brothers, called what happened “the most bizarre of strange accidents I could imagine”, although he did not know what caused the explosion, he said in a telephone interview Monday. market.
He said his brother Michael was in stable condition at a hospital in Middletown, NY, and that doctors were able to reconstruct a damaged knee.
Explosive devices used in gender disclosure events have been associated with at least two deaths since 2019 and two major forest fires. Parties are a popular way for couples to announce pregnancy news on Facebook and Instagram.
A 26-year-old man died in Michigan this month after being hit by shrapnel from “a small cannon-like device” that exploded when he was fired in celebration of a baby shower, officials said.
Peter Pekny said that his brothers were “very mechanically inclined” and that “they could fix and do anything”.
He described Christopher as a talented mechanic who liked to rebuild engines and take cars apart and assemble them again. Christopher and Michael were repairing a rented house in Ferndale, a village in the city of Liberty, about 110 miles northwest of New York City, said the brother.
Pekny said that Christopher earned the nickname Frankenstein at his job at Liberty Concrete, where he worked as a bricklayer.
“What he took and moved would have taken three people,” he said. “I saw him take engine blocks because they were on the way.”
He said Christopher Pekny was six feet tall and weighed 110 pounds. When he played football in high school, he once hit another player so hard that he broke the player’s helmet in half, he recalled.
“He had the toughest head I have ever seen,” he said.
Christopher Pekny learned shortly before Christmas that his girlfriend was pregnant and that they would have a child, said Peter Pekny.
Pekny said he received a call from relatives on Sunday – the day of the party – while he was in Florida, NY, 45 miles away. He thought at first that the call was a ploy to get him to the party earlier, but when he heard the news, he ran to Liberty on Route 17, sometimes at more than 100 miles an hour.
He said he passed a state policeman, who pulled him in and started yelling at him. Pekny said he explained why he was speeding, and after the policeman went to his vehicle and checked the radio to check his story, he went back to Pekny’s truck.
He said that the policeman said to him: “You have to go” and did not fine him. “The color has completely disappeared from your face,” said Pekny of the officer. “He seemed to have seen two ghosts.”
As boys, Michael and Christopher were inseparable and remained so until adulthood. “If you could think of any two people who were the two closest people – amplify that ten times,” said Pekny.
As he grew up, Pekny said, he was tough on his younger brothers and didn’t share his connection. That had started to change recently, he said, and they were getting closer.
“He was really looking forward to starting a family,” he said of Christopher. “He was really starting to settle down and grow.”
The Pekny family owns the Robin Hood Diner, one of the pillars of Livingston Manor, an area of Catskills famous for trout fishing.
Christopher, who would have turned 29 on Tuesday, served tables and served bartenders there. He wished his father good night on Saturday, saying he would see him in the morning, said Pekny.
A Facebook post on the restaurant page said: “We appreciate the impressive display of love and support that you have all shown. Robin Hood will be closed for the immediate future. “