An expectant father was killed when a device he was building for a gender reveal party exploded, New York police said Monday. Christopher Pekny, 28, was assembling a device for his child’s gender reveal party in the Catskills town of Liberty when it exploded just before Sunday afternoon, state police said.
Pekny was killed in the blast and his 27-year-old brother, Michael Pekny, was injured, police said. He was treated for his injuries in a regional hospital.
CBS New York reports that in the Livingston Manor Diner, owned by the victim’s family, candles and flowers symbolize the heartbreak his friends and family are feeling. Pekny’s family released a statement saying they are heartbroken by his loss but grateful for the abundance of love and support from the community.
Death is the latest in a string of tragedies due to faulty gender-revealing devices in recent years.
That was a man from Michigan murdered earlier this month when he was hit by shrapnel from a cannon revealing the sex used in a baby shower, authorities said.
Another gender reveal device led to a forest fire in September 2020 that have set fire to thousands of acres in Southern California.
In 2019, a grandmother-to-be was murdered in a house in rural Iowa when an explosive detonated.