Video shows fireworks device detonated at N.J. block party, shrapnel sent flying
MANVILLE, N.J. -- An investigation underway in Manville, New Jersey, after police say someone exploded an improvised fireworks device during a neighborhood block party on Saturday night.
Shrapnel hit one person, who had to be airlifted to the hospital.
What surveillance video captured
The footage shows families at their annual 4th of July block party in Cooper Street Park at around 8:15 p.m. when a loud boom is heard. Someone appears to be seen lighting the device and then walking away, just seconds before the explosion.
Dan Cichon says just before the blast, a man approached him saying he would "light up a black-powdered cannon."
"The moment he said he was setting it off is the only time I've ever seen him," Cichon said.
"It was the biggest explosion to the point where like my vision went gray and I couldn't hear," witness Kyra Runowicz added.
Runowicz said shrapnel flew in all directions, damaging a car parked in a driveway, shattering the glass, and also piercing through the siding of a house, which was later covered with tape.
"It was terrifying. I was so lucky my kids were over there. Imagine if there were kids here?" Runowicz said.
"It looked like something out of a war movie"
Police said metal from the improvised fireworks device hit a 34-year-old in the torso. Runowicz said she ran toward him.
"He is my best friend and to walk over and literally see him like that was the worst experience of my life," she said.
Police say that man was airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Friends say he is stable and has a long road to recovery.
"We just see the gore and blood everywhere. It looked like something out of a war movie," Cichon said.
Neighbors collected the scattered metal pieces and placed them in Ziploc bags.
While police said it was an isolated incident and there was no danger to the public, those living in the area want the man with the device caught.
"I don't know what he actually did, what his intentions were, but obviously there was some kind of mistake made," Cichon said.