Explosion victims remembered (Man gave military shell to children)

[The Straight Story]

Explosion victims remembered
The Bakersfield Californian | Wednesday, Aug 30 2006 11:42 PM

BY CHRISTINA SOSA, Californian staff writer
e-mail: [e-mail]

Andrew Cole Le will never get to ride the blue beach cruiser bicycle his grandmother bought him for his eighth birthday. The bike the little boy had never seen will stay stowed at a family friend’s house for now.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever bought anything ahead of time. Tony (Sendejo) wanted to give it to him early. Maybe he would have been riding it yesterday,” grandmother Darla Lane said Wednesday, collapsing into tears.

Andrew, along with Jeni Marie Klawitter, 7, died in an explosion at an apartment complex on Maple Avenue on Tuesday. Five other children were injured when a military round, thought to be harmless, hit a table and exploded, sending dirt and wood and metal shrapnel flying into the group.

Andrew, along with older brothers Nathaniel Etcheverry, 10, and Terrence Griffin, 12, have lived with Lane for nearly two years.


“He was the sweetest, most loving kid. He would take care of everyone in the family. He was my little helper,” Lane said.

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/70848.html




Man gave military shell to children

Frank Tony Sendejo, a big man using all his resolve to fight back tears, explained Wednesday how a military round he had as a “conversation piece” ended up being a deadly explosive that killed two children.

He described it as a 3-inch long, 2-inch wide, 40 mm round whose firing pin and bottom shell casing had been removed, along with any gun powder that had been in it.

“I thought it was harmless,” he said.

But one of the children at his home took it to an apartment complex at 1913 Maple Ave., just west of H Street in the Oleander neighborhood.

The children, who play with each other every day in the neighborhood, were throwing it up in the air near the building when it landed on a table and exploded, according to Terrence Griffin, 12, the older brother of the boy who was killed at the scene.

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/70612.html

This is one damn sad story. Send out some good vibes, prayers, hopes, whatever you can to the affected families and friends.

[jmowreader]

1. He didn't "give" the round to the children

It appears that he had the round on display and one of the children took it to play with it. Boom.

I'm going to come off as a curmudgeon and a horrid person here, but whatever happened to "don't touch daddy's things"? When I was growing up, we all understood that we weren't to touch "daddy's things"--his whiskey, his cigars, his guns and ammunition. He had a .44 Magnum in his backpack that he needed for work. It wasn't locked up. We stayed away from these things--not because we knew something horrid would happen to us, but because they were dad's.

This was in the 1970s when parents ran the family.

Today children run the family and the papers are full of shit like this.

And it sure as hell isn't a Democrat/Republican issue because children started to run families when Reagan was in office.

[Kailassa]

3. I had very strict parents too.

And in the 50s and 60s my brothers used to pinch my dad's rifle
for target practice whenever he wasn't looking, despite knoing
he'd tan their rears for it when he caught them.

The time when kids just did what their parents said is as big a
myth as the garden of Eden.

However the more mobile society, and the lack of contact with
supportive relatives and neighbours, has meant that the influence
a parent has over a child is smaller than it was, and it's harder
than ever now to counteract the influence of the peer group.

As a single parent with no support it has taken an incredible
time, commitment and constant, exhausting effort to bring my
kids up well. They've turned out ok, but it meant giving up all
personal life I wanted for myself for many years, and the strain
at times came close to driving me crazy.

And my psych says I'm an exeptionally strong person. ...

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. "Today children run the family and the papers are full of shit like this."

Mighty fine broad brush statement you have made there. You don't know one thing about how I am raising my children...but I sure as heck know they aren't ruling my family. We haven't made the papers lately. There have and always will be occasions like this. There was no "golden time period" of family life. The next door neighborboy was just as jerky as this back in 1975.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It says he did give it to one of the children

Bakersfield police released a statement just before noon saying that "the unknown type of explosive device" was obtained by Nathaniel Etcheverry but passed off several times. Sendejo said he gave it to Nathaniel.

[Kailassa]

2. Can some-one here with knowledge of military rounds

explain how that thing could have exploded?

The story as reported sounds impossible to me.

:shrug:

[The Straight Story]

4. More info here on that

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/70812.html

[RC]

6. The 'bullet' end had its own explosive charge and detonator.

Causing a whole lot more damage than just going into something and making a hole when fired.

[benEzra]

8. This probably wasn't a small-arms round...

as even a rifle round going off would be more like a firecracker (case would split, some eye danger from uncontained primer cup going flying and from hot gases, but almost certainly not lethal).

This was probably a mortar shell or somesuch, an explosive round that would be more like a grenade going off. Depending on how old the thing was (Vietnam? WW2?), one of the explosives used might have become unstable. 50-year-old unexploded ordnance is a real danger, since it's often a LOT more impact-sensitive than it was when it was made.

[Jed Dilligan]

9. it says 40 mm

A lot of ordnance is still dangerous after defusing. Those dud hand grenades you can get at a surplus store will explode over heat (like a Coleman stove). I knew a kid growing up who died like that.

[jmowreader]

10. It's a grenade launcher round, or at least it was

Fits in the M203 grenade launcher. Nasty little round.

As someone said earlier, this round has two charges--the propellant charge, which sends the grenade downrange, and the explosive charge, which makes it blow up when it hits its target. Lethal radius is five meters, casualty radius 15 if this was a high-explosive round.

[BrotherBuzz]

11. It was a damn 40mm grenade

The fool removed the delivery charge, but the explosive part (the actual grenade) was still intact.

[Kailassa]

12. Thanks everyone who explained this.

I'd have been just as big a fool, not knowing any better.

Except that I wouldn't keep something ugly and reminiscent
of killing in the house anyway.

My sympathies go out to that foolish guy, as well as to the
children and their families.