A scorned teen set off explosives inside a Michigan home with kids inside because he was upset a girl refused to go out with him.
Jonathan Brady, 17, was arrested on April 10 after he broke into the girl’s house in Mount Clemens around 3am and detonated an explosive device.
At the time, seven people were inside the home, including three young children. Fortunately, everyone made it out alive with no injuries.
The home itself suffered extensive damage from the blast as fire spread quickly across the property.
Delvon Lee, who was in the home at the time of the horrid incident with his nine-month-old son, he heard ‘a big boom’ when the explosive went off.
‘You just hear a big old boom, like it was just loud. It sounded literally like someone threw an M-80 in there. Just — it blew up. When I went downstairs, first it was like a little fire. It wasn’t nothing big,’ Lee told WXYZ.
Soon enough the fire quickly engulfed the home as Lee, his son’s mother and grandmother, a two-month-old, his cousin and her nine-month-old escaped out the back door and hopped over a fence.
‘You just see the whole front of this just burst in flames. It was crazy,’ Lee recalled. He said Brady was agitated that his female cousin who lived in the home had declined the teen’s offer to go out with him earlier that night.
‘This is a kid ruining his life over a girl he met five days ago,’ Lee added.
Pictures and video footage taken after the blast showed serious damage made to home.
All of the children, including babies, were checked out and cleared at the hospital.
‘My main concern was making sure my son was good and everybody was out the house,’ Lee said.
The family rented the home, but many of their belongings were lost in the explosion.
A GoFundMe page has since been created to help them rebuild their lives after the senseless tragedy.
‘I never in my life would have thought it would be me an my family when we just over came from a struggle with a domestic abusive relationship from on the run from it we had to go to a shelter and then we found this house a year and a half ago and finally getting our life together,’ Michell Wilson, the page organizer wrote.
She also shared devastating pictures of the now charred home. As of Thursday afternoon more than $2,200 was raised to help them.
Brady remains in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center, according to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.
A preliminary hearing was held on April 11 where a judge granted the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office’s request for a special adjournment to determine if Brady should be tried as an adult for his crimes.
On Thursday, the sheriff’s office announced that he was arraigned as an adult on one count of home invasion, second degree arson, placing explosives near a property and causing damage, as well as possession of bombs with unlawful intent.
Home invasion is a felony that holds a 20 year sentence. He could also face 20 years for the arson charge.
The explosives charges also hold 20 year sentences and are considered felonies.
Brady’s bond was set at $500,000. If released he will have to wear a GPS device, the department said.
‘This was an extremely serious crime that endangered the lives of seven people and caused substantial damage to a home,’ Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said.
‘I am especially outraged that the lives of two infants were put a risk. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office will not tolerate this reckless disregard for human life and private property.’