Police identified the victim as Anthony Herman, 46. They said he was lighting a homemade cannon about 10:45 p.m. when it exploded. They believe a piece of metal shrapnel hit him in the chest. A neighbor said it appeared he had moved away from the cannon after lighting it.Sounds like a chunk of shrapnel got him in the heart.“We heard a loud explosion and then we heard sirens and stuff,” neighbor Dan Fitzgerald said.
Somebody else started CPR, believing Herman was suffering a cardiac arrest, before rescuers arrived. But Michigan State Police said he died at the scene.
Neighbors said Herman had been firing from steel cannons about a foot tall.
At least he died doing something he loved.