M-80 Explodes in Face of Prankster

A 26-year-old New York City man was taken to a Bridgeport hospital early Sunday after an M-80 exploded in his face while he was riding in a car with three other men in the town's Greenfield Hill neighborhood.

Police said today that none of the men were cooperating with police and that an investigation into the incident was continuing.

Police received a fireworks' complaint about 3:05 a.m. and responded to Brett Road in Fairfield, where officers saw a black Audi, occupied by four men, pull into a driveway, police said.

Police said a New York City man, who was a right, rear passenger in the car, had a large amount of blood on the right side of his face due to an M-80, which is the equivalent of a quarter-stick of dynamite, exploding in his face. "He said he went to throw a firework out the window and it exploded in the car," said Police Sgt. James Perez, a department spokesman. "He received a cut on the right side of his face and had darkness consistent with gunpowder on the right side of his face...He just got a small cut and powder burns."

The car window by the man shattered but remained in place due to tinting holding it together, police said.

It appears the man may have forgotten to roll down the window before he lit the M-80, though police and firefighters couldn't confirm that; police said the man was a right, rear passenger and firefighters said the shattered window was a right, rear window.

Firefighters responded based on the explosion and need for medical assistance, and the man was taken by AMR Ambulance Co. to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport.

Police didn't find any damaged mailboxes in the area and were not sure what the intent of the four men was. "None are talking. None want to say anything," Perez said. Information that has been elicited from the men is in conflict, police said.

Perez said police did find a two-inch bottle rocket and ashes in a mailbox in the immediate area.

Deputy Police Chief Gary MacNamara said police believe the motivation, at its worst, was vandalism and not to physically harm someone. "We're not looking at that incident as being anything more than ignorance," he said.

Police released the name of the injured New York man so his condition could be checked at St. Vincent's Medical Center, but on condition that it not be published. Two of the other men were from Fairfield and Easton; police didn't know where the fourth man lived.

A spokeswoman at St. Vincent's said she didn't have a record of the New York City man as a patient and that he likely was treated and released and not admitted.