A Michigan man cut himself while breaking into houses last month and bled to death on the roof of one of his targets, police said.
Vincent Parnell Reynolds, 36, of Petoskey, died May 27 after leaving a party he attended at a home east of the city, WPBN-TV in Traverse City reported. Police officials said Reynolds, who had recently moved to Petoskey from Saginaw for work, then broke into two houses nearby.
No one was home in the first house, but the homeowner was in the second one, the news station said. After a confrontation, Reynolds broke a window to escape onto the roof.
"It's our belief that, while he was breaking out the windows with his hands, he severed an artery in his arm and therefore had an arterial bleed and was losing a significant amount of blood," Matthew Breed, director of the Petoskey Department of Public Safety, told WPBN.
Responding officers attempted to reach Reynolds using a ladder, but were too late to save him from the massive bleeding he suffered. Breed said Reynolds was unarmed at the time of the break-in.
Investigators do not believe Reynolds intended to steal anything from the houses he broke into, the news station reported. They are awaiting toxicology reports to determine if he had been under the influence of anything when he died.
About the Author
