Queens package explosion leaves man seriously injured, police say

The 73-year-old landlord who suffered burns over 80 percent of his body when an explosive canister blew up on his Queens property remained in critical condition Sunday as authorities continue to investigate the incident.

George Wray, who owns the property at 222nd Street near 145th Road, sustained second-and third-degree burns after he opened the package outside the home Friday, an NYPD police spokesman said. He is hospitalized at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

“My husband’s very sick,” his wife, Linda Wray, said in a brief telephone interview Saturday. “I don’t know if he’s going to pull through. That’s up to God and the doctors.”

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said the package detonated around 4:15 p.m. It was about the size and dimension of a 12-inch-long Quaker Oats can and appeared to contain explosive black powder but no shrapnel, he said.

It had the word “Mac” written on it and had been sitting on the porch outside of the home for about seven days, police said.

“There is substantial evidence left from this device, which appears to be a victim-actuated device. In other words, when he opened it the explosion occurred,” Boyce said at a news conference Friday evening.

So far, it does not appear that the explosion was an act of terror, police said on Saturday, but the investigation is ongoing. Detectives were still trying to figure out who left the package and why, police said.

“The motive is still unknown,” Boyce said. Preliminary investigations suggest that George Wray was not the intended target, cops said.

Property records list Wray as the owner of the home, which he rents to two families.

“It didn’t belong to anybody, no one picked it up until this individual, the owner, came over and opened it,” Boyce said.

Residue from the explosion, which could be seen on the front door and brick of the home, was taken to a lab for testing, according to Boyce.

“There’s a lot of evidence to look at here,” he added.

The NYPD, FDNY’s Hazmat team, members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were investigating the incident. The FBI did not immediately return a request for comment on whether its New York division had joined the probe.

Donna Harris, a spokeswoman for USPIS’ New York division, said the package did not appear to have come through the mail, but that the agency was still investigating.

With Nicholas Spangler