Home Scandal and Gossip Gender reveal device explosion kills Sullivan County NY father to be

Gender reveal device explosion kills Sullivan County NY father to be

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christopher pekny liberty ny
Christopher Pekny Liberty NY father to be killed in gender reveal device explosion.
christopher pekny liberty ny
Christopher Pekny Liberty NY father to be killed in gender reveal device explosion.

Christopher Pekny Liberty NY father to be killed when device he was constructing for gender reveal party suddenly exploded. Cause of blast unknown. 

An expectant father who sought to ‘delight’ an upcoming ‘gender reveal’ reverie was killed this weekend when a device he was constructing ‘unexpectedly’ exploded, upstate New York police said.

Christopher Pekny, 28, of Liberty died Sunday when the device went off, according to a statement from Major James C. Michael of the New York State Police.

Police said the blast killed Mr Pekny and injured his brother Michael Pekny, 27, who was taken to hospital. Both the state police and the bomb disposal unit are currently investigating the incident.

A spokesman for state police told the New York Times the device consisted of some kind of pipe, without giving further details.

Gender-reveal parties are celebrations announcing whether expecting parents are going to have a girl or a boy.

Christopher’s older brother, Peter, called the explosion a ‘freak accident.’

‘The freakiest of freak accidents that I could ever imagine,’ the 34-year-old told the nytimes. 

Peter said both Christopher and Michael had experience fixing and building different things. Christopher was also a talented mechanic who enjoyed working on cars.

Sullivan County NY father to be killed gender reveal device explosion
Pictured, Christopher Pekny Liberty NY man. Image via social media.

‘He was really looking forward to starting a family,’

‘If you could think of any two people who were the closest two people — amplify that tenfold,’ he said of his two brothers’ bond.

Peter told the Times that Christopher learned his girlfriend was pregnant with a boy just before Christmas.

‘He was really looking forward to starting a family,’ he said. ‘He was really starting to settle down and grow up.’

Christopher’s family owns Robin Hood Diner, a restaurant in the Catskills area of New York. The family posted a statement to the restaurant’s Facebook page on Monday.

‘We are deeply saddened and must inform you all of the loss of our dear an beloved Christopher,’ they said. ‘We appreciate the overwhelming display of love and support that you all have shown.’

‘The Robin Hood will be closed for the immediate future,’ they added. ‘More details will be posted when we have them available. Thank you.’

It is still not clear what kind of device Christopher was trying to build, nor how it malfunctioned.

christopher pekny liberty ny
Christopher Pekny Sullivan County NY father to be killed.

String of gender reveal deaths

The death is the latest in a string of catastrophes to be linked to gender-reveal parties in recent years.

They can include prediction games, with the ‘big reveal’ being made with fireworks and coloured smoke grenades.

But several large-scale parties have gone wrong, even resulting in several deaths.

A man from Michigan was killed earlier this month after he was struck by shrapnel from ‘a small cannon type device’ fired during a baby shower, police said.

Two other gender-reveal parties were blamed for sparking wildfires in California in September 2020, and Arizona in April 2017.

In 2019, a grandmother-to-be was killed at a home in rural Iowa when a gender-reveal explosive device blew up.

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