A pregnant father was killed when a device he was building for a gender reveal party exploded, New York police said on Monday. Christopher Pekny, 28, was setting up a device for his son’s gender reveal party in the city of Liberty, Catskills, when it exploded just before noon on Sunday, state police said.
Pekny was killed in the explosion and his 27-year-old brother, Michael Pekny, was injured, police said. He was treated for his injuries at an area hospital.
CBS New York reports that at the Livingston Manor Diner, owned by the victim’s family, candles and flowers symbolize the hurt that his friends and family feel. Pekny’s family released a statement saying they were heartbroken by their loss, but grateful for the community’s show of love and support.
Death is the latest in a series of tragedies attributed to defective gender disclosure devices in recent years.
A Michigan man was killed earlier this month when he was hit by shrapnel from a gender-reveal cannon used in a baby shower, officials said.
Another gender disclosure device set off a forest fire in September 2020 that burned thousands of acres in Southern California.
In 2019, a the future grandmother was killed in a rural Iowa home when a gender-reveal explosive device exploded.