The Queens landlord who was badly burned after a package exploded in his hands last week has died, police said Tuesday.
George Wray, 73, suffered second- and third-degree burns over 80 percent of his body after the 12-inch-long cylindrical explosive device went off outside a home on 222nd Street near 145th Road around 4:15 p.m. on Friday, according to police. Property records list Wray as the owner of the home, which two families rent.
Wray’s wife, Linda Wray, had said over the weekend that her husband was “very sick,” and she wasn’t sure if he would pull through.
Wray died on Tuesday at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was being treated since the explosion, according to police.
So far, no arrests have been made. Police said earlier Tuesday they did not have any persons of interest in the case.
The package that killed Wray was about the same size as a Quaker Oats can and was packed with what appeared to be black powder, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce had said.
Boyce described the device as “self-actuated,” meaning that it detonated when Wray tried to open the package.
Although 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 investigators did not believe Wray or anyone who lived at the address was the intended target.
“It didn’t belong to anybody, no one picked it up until this individual, the owner, came over and opened it,” Boyce said during a news conference last Friday.
