Christopher Pekny, a 28-year-old father-to-be from New York, died after a device he was building for his child’s gender-revealing party exploded, authorities said.
New York state police responded Sunday at 11:55 a.m. to reports of an explosion at a residence in Liberty City. Authorities said the sex-revealing device Pekny was building exploded, killing him and injuring his 27-year-old brother, Michael Pekny.
State police and the bomb disposal unit are investigating the incident.
The authorities did not indicate what kind of device Pekny was building for the party. A New York State Police spokesman told BuzzFeed News Monday, “Currently, there are no charges.”
This isn’t the first time gender-revealing stunts by families have turned deadly.
Last September, a California firefighter died while fighting a massive wildfire sparked by a pyrotechnic device used at a family gender reveal event. The El Dorado fire has burned more than 19,000 acres, destroyed homes and forced hundreds to flee their homes.
And in 2019, a 56-year-old grandmother was killed when her family created a pipe bomb that exploded while planning a gender reveal event. The family had gathered at their home to experiment with different types of explosives so they could film the announcement for social media.