Update: About 50 Wawasee students, three bus drivers injured, but only one injury is serious; victims treated at hospitals in Warsaw, Goshen and Fort Wayne.FORT WAYNE – After receiving a series of noise complaints, police raided a northeast Fort Wayne home Friday and discovered several homemade cannons as well as a meth lab.
Officers searched 4600 Woodway Drive and arrested Edward Chmiel, 51, police said.
Along with the lab, officers found methamphetamine ingredients, a small marijuana-growing operation, the makings of fireworks, an explosive device and nine homemade cannons. One had multiple barrels, all of which were loaded.
Several guns and unidentified chemicals were also seized, police said.
Police had received numerous complaints about loud explosions near Chmiel’s home, near Reed and Stellhorn roads. Officers learned that Chmiel had uploaded a video called “King Ed’s Fireworks” that showed him blowing up things on his property, police said.
A YouTube video with a similar title features men setting off cannons and blowing up household items such as a TV, a birdhouse and a grill. The three-minute video, posted in September 2011, is set to hard rock music.
The video’s caption says: “Like a good Neighbor King Ed lives up to his name … knows how to have a little fun now and then. Nuttin wrong with experimenting with a little gunpowder to prep for a world full of chaos.”
Chmiel was preliminarily charged with misdemeanor counts of marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, along with five felonies: dealing meth, manufacturing meth, maintaining a common nuisance, dealing marijuana and possession of a destructive device. He was held without bail.
