Mr. Philips woke up his children to get them ready for school, and then heard, at 6:50 a.m., a sound like a truck slamming into a dumpster.

“I immediately ran outside to see what it was. I looked to the left and saw my next-door neighbor, Stephan, (who also happens to be the father of my daughter’s best friend) standing, covered in blood, with shrapnel lodged all throughout his body and his hands nearly blown off,” he wrote. “His face had a large gash on the lower side, it looked as if he was hit with an ax. He had a glazed over look on his face, but his eyes were open. Within five seconds, he looked at me and collapsed onto his side.”

Mr. Philips said he had administered rescue breaths, but could not perform chest compressions because Mr. House’s body was full of shrapnel.

“All around me, the neighborhood was in utter chaos, but I heard not a sound other than the sound of his gurgling blood,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, there were screaming neighbors, and worse, the screams of “My daddy is dead! My daddy is dead!” coming from his little angel who saw him like that.”