A man was killed Saturday, and his two children were hospitalized after an explosive discovery was made amongst a relative’s belongings in a gated Indiana community.
Officers from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department responded to reports of an explosion around 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Lakes of the Four Season subdivision, roughly 20 miles southeast of Gary, Indiana.
According to a press release from Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr., the family, “at a home in the 3400 block of W. Lakeshore Drive had been going through a grandfather’s belongings when they found a hand grenade.”
When first responders arrived on the scene, 47-year-old Bryan Niedert was found unresponsive only to later be pronounced dead. His two children, an 18-year-old daughter, and a 14-year-old son, had also been injured by the blast and were transported to a hospital with shrapnel wounds.
Martinez had noted in his release that, “Someone reportedly pulled the pin on the device and it detonated.”
However, NBC5 reported that detectives were “looking into whether the device may have self detonated due to its age or other factors, whether the pin was pulled or whether any other circumstance may have been involved.”
The Porter County Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene to check for any further dangers as investigators combed the scene.
Speaking with WGN News, Bob Griffin explained if not for the sirens he wouldn’t have even known the blast had occurred. “We heard a bunch of sirens out there,” he said as he had been golfing nearby at the time of the incident. “like for five or 10 minutes.”
“It’s quiet out on the golf course and you don’t hear that many sirens around here, so I was just surprised to hear it,” Griffin added.
In their own statement, the Lake County Coroner, which had not yet announced their autopsy findings, said, “Coroner David J. Pastrick and staff of the Lake County Coroner’s Office would like to express our sincerest condolences and prayers to Bryan’s wife and family.”
“Thank you to all law enforcement agencies for their quick response and assistance with this tragic circumstance,” they continued.
The FBI has cautioned in the past about the risk of discovering explosives in the homes of veterans and to contact law enforcement rather than tampering with any such device.
“Some families of aging U.S. war veterans are finding unexpected, and highly dangerous, souvenirs among their loved ones’ belongings–ticking time bombs,” the agency wrote. “Service members either brought the devices home from their combat service or purchased them later. Most of the devices found today come from World War I…World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War.”
“Known as military ordnance, these devices can remain intact for decades but explode without notice,” they cautioned. “They are highly dangerous, and only a trained bomb technician should handle them.”
Special Agent Patrick Carolan with the FBI’s St. Louis Field Office had said, “Usually what happens is when a veteran passes away, and family members are cleaning out their items, usually in a basement, garage, or attic, they’ll come across something that they knew or suspect is a military ordnance. They call their local police, and we work with the police department’s bomb squad.”
The circumstances around the explosion remain under investigation.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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