Richard Fox, 39, who is known to friends as Ricky, shot the cannon after loading it with fireworks powder.
His 38-year-old wife, named by U-T San Diego as Jeanette Ogara Fox was found dead from shrapnel wounds when authorities arrived at the home in the small mountain community of Potrero on the Mexican border.
Moments after the cannon went off he phoned his brother Jerry and said: ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it should have been me,’ according to U-T San Diego.
Fox was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his right leg and arrested for investigation of exploding a device resulting in death.
Three other adults and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Vanessa, were also inside the home but escaped injury. The girl was being looked after by her uncle, Jerry, following the explosion.
Preliminary evidence suggested Fox was under the influence of alcohol, San Diego County sheriff’s Sgt. David Martinez said.
Investigators are yet to establish a motive or determine if the blast was accidental.
Fox and his friend were supposedly working on the cannon nearby when it went off, and at least one of the men was at the scene when police arrived.
He said that he made the cannonball, and even admitted to lighting the weapon just before it went off around 12.15am.
John Arnold, a neighbor, told U-T San Diego that Fox worked as a handyman and lived in the home for about six years.
‘He liked experimenting with guns, and it looks like this experiment went bad,’ he told the newspaper.
he added that Fox ‘adores Jeanette and Vanessa. They mean the world to him. I can’t imagine how he feels right now. He probably doesn’t want to live.’
The couple are apparently well known in the community, largely because of Fox’s striking looks – his is tall, thin and tattooed.
Brother Jerry Fox, of Redding, told the newspaper that Fox ‘likes to live on the edge.
‘He is one of those people who likes to take things apart and put things back together and likes to see how things work.’
