13-year-old’s death in fireworks accident leaves friends broken, his mom says

Michael Turner III was doing what most 13-year-old boys do on the Fourth of July.

“You have a bunch of boys hanging out, running around, having fun, just like any typical Fourth of July. You know, just let the kids go out and blow off fireworks,” said mom Alicia Weaver.

But the fun occasion in Naytahwaush, a small town on the eastern edge of White Earth Nation in northern Minnesota, turned tragic when a firework Michael was holding launched into his chest.

“He must have put the artillery shell in the tube the wrong way, and when he lit it up, the pressure must have been so intense that it backfired on him and hit him in his heart,” Weaver said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It stopped his heart from the impact of the artillery shell.”

A wake for the teenager will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Naytahwaush Sports Facility, followed by a funeral 10 a.m. Friday.

Weaver said her son’s friends have been keeping a spirit fire ever since that tragic night. The ceremonial fire is kept burning from the time of death until burial.

“I talked to his friends, and they’re pretty broken, but they’ve been hanging around the fire,” Weaver said.

“The kids that were there, it’s just so heartbreaking right now,” she said. “Our community is going through it. Our kids are really taking a really bad hit because he was a lot of people’s friend. It’s been hard, but there’s been a lot of support.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the community held a gathering to mourn Michael and expanded behavioral health services.

“It’s just sad. It’s just a freak accident, you know. It’s unexpected, and it happens every day,” Weaver said.

The State Fire Marshal said two people have been killed by fireworks since 2019 and 132 have been injured, mostly children.

The Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Office said witnesses saw Michael pointing a large, lit firework away from himself before it went off, shooting through the bottom of the tube and hitting the boy in the chest. He fell to the ground clutching his chest, and bystanders began chest compressions.

When officers arrived at the 300 block of New Circle Drive at 11:14 p.m., Michael wasn’t breathing and lacked a pulse. They performed CPR before medics arrived and pronounced him dead at 12:07 a.m.

Weaver said she got the call at work that they were doing CPR. She waited for Michael at the hospital but “he was already gone when the ambulance got there.”

She wants her son to be remembered as a young Anishinaabe who was caring and spiritual.

Michael loved traditional Native American practices, like drumming and dancing at powwows, wild rice harvesting and sugar bush. His mom said he liked to play with his BB gun and be outdoors.

He is survived by his mother as well as aunts, uncles and cousins, and best friend Cassidy Burnett.