The Region - News from April 8, 1985

A Palmdale man has been arrested on suspicion of child endangering after a home-made bomb he was testing exploded, seriously burning his 13-year-old son. Todd Kokko was listed in fair condition at County-USC Medical Center with burns on his face and chest, a hospital spokesman said. Sheriff’s deputies arrested the boy’s father, Charles Kokko, 34, after the explosion behind the man’s house in a high desert subdivision 18 miles east of Palmdale, Deputy Bill Dame said. The father was released after he posted $3,000 bail. The bomb, fashioned out of a paint can and gunpowder, exploded when the youth struck a match to relight it, Dame said.