FeedsPolice investigate after man injured by homemade bomb
A night of hurling improvised cherry bombs from a pickup truck ended poorly for one Canton resident on Sunday night.
According to Canton Police, a 23-year-old man sought treatment at Oakwood Healthcare Center on Canton Center Road after a Ping-Pong ball filled with a chemical compound exploded in his hand.
Sgt. Rick Pomorski said the man and two friends learned how to make the devices, which were also made using tennis balls, on the Internet.
“Playing with explosives is a very risky behavior,” he said. “It only takes one mistake and you could lose life or limb.”
The injury to the man’s right hand was extensive, said Pomorski, who has encountered this type of incident before.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with this much damage,” he said. “From what we’ve seen, he was lucky it didn’t take his whole hand off.”
The man was lighting wicks on the bombs and throwing them out the passenger side of the truck as it traveled down Lotz Road, between Cherry Hill and Ford roads.
After he was injured, the man’s friends dumped eight unexploded bombs in a roadside ditch and dropped him off at the center for treatment, said Pomorski. The man was later transferred to Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn.
Police later located the devices and called Michigan State Police Bomb Squad, which rendered the bombs safe, he added.
No criminal charges have been filed and no one has been arrested. The Canton Police Department was investigating the incident Monday and planned to send trace elements found in the devices to a laboratory for testing.
Under Michigan law, manufacturing or handling an explosive device without a permit is a misdemeanor subject to a fine of $500 or a maximum jail sentence of 1 year, or both.
