Police are investigating whether 50-year-old Theodore Ellinghaus Jr. intentionally set the large firecracker that killed him yesterday, or was fatally wounded by accident. The Post reports that Ellinghaus, who lived with his father in Ozone Park, Queens, lit an M80 firecracker and held it against his body. The device was so powerful it "tore a hole through his stomach, leaving his organs exposed." Ellinghaus' father, Theodore Sr., told the paper he doesn't believe his son would commit suicide. "It was an accident. It went off. He wouldn't kill himself. He told me he wouldn't kill himself."
Neighbors portray Ellinghaus Jr., a former auto mechanic who had been out of work for six months, as depressed and somewhat paranoid, installing surveillance cameras around his home. "He said people were coming to the closet and the window," Frank Kleineisel said. "He said, 'I was on medical for depression and the doctor stopped it,' " and also noted that he had an appointment with a psychiatrist yesterday morning. Another neighbor noted that the Ellinghaus "had problems" in the 20 years he knew him.
The NYPD's bomb squad determined that the explosion was "an isolated incident," and gave the neighborhood the "all clear" after another M80 was found in the house. The victim's father maintained that his son's death was an accident, and that it wasn't unusual for him to have fireworks. "All kids have fireworks."
