Lowndes County Man Recovering After Being Struck In the Face By Fireworks

CRAWFORD, Miss. (WCBI)- A Lowndes County man is recovering after a serious fireworks accident Thursday night in Crawford.

Family members said 34-year-old Montrell Turner was struck by a fire cracker outside a home on Long Street around 9 o’clock.

“Once it started getting dark the big guys, they came with the fireworks and Montrell went to go light one and it just blew up on him,” said Pam Turner, Montrell’s cousin.

Before the accident, Turner said said everyone was having  good time.

They were cooking, listening to music, and enjoying the holiday and each other’s company.

She said they were getting ready to light up the sky with fireworks, and that’s when things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

According to Turner, Montrell was doing a fireworks display for kids in the neighborhood when a device fired and struck him in the face.

“When he went back outside he went back over to the road and I heard this explosion, I mean like a big bomb, canon had went off,” said Deane Parson, the Mayor of Crawford also Montrell’s aunt. “I turned and the only thing I could see was him going up. He landed and then everybody started running towards him and when I got there, I work with the fire department too, District Four, and I got there and I seen the laceration on his eye and I immediately started putting pressure on it so that it can stop bleeding, then we called 911 for him.”

“He was bleeding,” Turner recalled. “He was saying that he couldn’t see, and blood, it was just gushing out of him so it was like, not good to look at him. It was unbearable to see the blood coming out of them like that.”

More than 12 hours after the incident, blood stains could still be seen on the street where the 34-year-old was laying.

Family members said they aren’t sure of the exact fire cracker that caused this accident, all they know is that it was a big one.

“One that goes straight up,” said Turner. “I guess you can say it was like a rocket, but it was fatter than that.”

Family members admit, this accident put a damper in their holiday spirits.

Turner said they will now relying on their faith and each other to get them through this tough time.

“Just leave it in the hands of the Lord, he will always take care of it,” Turner expressed.

“We just got to pray,” said Parson. “On his eye, he has a broken bone, and we just want to pray, everybody just pray for him.”

Turner underwent surgery at a Jackson hospital Friday morning to treat a gash in his eyeball and a broken bone near his eye.

At last check he is recovering and is in stable condition.