According to Gaines Township authorities, a 26-year-old Michigan man was killed in an explosion during a baby shower. A small cannon device fired by the homeowner in the backyard of a house blew up and sprayed metal shrapnel that hit the man standing nearby.
The man was taken in serious condition to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he later died. The man has been identified as Evan Thomas Silva from Hartland, CBS partner WNEM reported.
Three parked cars and the garage where the baby shower was held were also hit by shrapnel, the station reported. Michigan police said the cannon gun in the device and cannon are suspected to have broken.
Referring to Michigan State Police, WNEM reports that the gun was purchased at auction by the homeowner. The device had been fired several times by the homeowner before February 6.
Calls on Sunday to Gaines Township authorities for additional information were not immediately answered.
In recent years, some gender-revealing events – where devices eject confetti, balloons, or other colored objects to announce the gender of a soon-to-be-born child – have taken a dangerous turn.
In September, a couple plans to reveal the gender of their baby with blue or pink smoke caused a wildfire that burned thousands of acres in Southern California. And in 2019, a homemade explosive device was used to reveal the gender of a baby that killed 56-year-old Pamela Kreimeyer in Knoxville, Iowa. The device was intended to spray powder, but instead blew up like a pipe bomb.