2 people killed by grenade in Dominican Republic

A former Dominican military sergeant exploded a grenade at his home, killing himself and a teenage boy.

A former Dominican military sergeant exploded a grenade at his home, killing himself and a teenage boy.

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Police spokesman Maximo Baez Aybar says Wilfredo Polanco was apparently showing the grenade to several neighborhood children when he threw it in his yard in the rural town of Villa Altagracia.

Eyewitnesses say the grenade hit a tree, bounced backwards and exploded by Polanco's patio. The former military man and the child were killed immediately and two others were wounded, including a 2-year-old boy who had shrapnel extracted from his left thigh and buttocks at a local hospital.

Baez said Monday that investigators are trying to determine how Polanco had the grenade in the first place.