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A car bombing in Monroe, Michigan

By: ashland_avenue (Diary)  |  September 22nd, 2011 at 12:08 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Eric Chappell looks like he once played football or basketball.  One might describe him as clean cut, well chiseled.

I think he told me he had once been an FBI agent.  A lawyer, he superbly represented me several years ago.

It was with shock and anger that I saw the following in Free Press today:

Erik Chappell is a respected lawyer who practices in Michigan and Ohio, handling cases such as divorces and civil litigation. He’s a husband and father, a boys’ football coach for the Catholic Youth Organization and a neighbor who hosts an annual Fourth of July party.

Who wanted him dead?

Authorities don’t know the answer yet, but they do know someone planted a bomb on his Volvo to do “maximum damage,” said Special Agent Donald Dawkins of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

As Chappell, 42, and his two young sons were driving in Monroe on Tuesday evening, the bomb detonated with such force that the blast was heard a mile away.

Flames poured out of the Volvo’s windows, and smoke billowed into the September sky.

The car burned to bare metal.

Chappell and his sons are expected to survive.

“It’s really a miracle, and it’s a blessing that everyone got out,” Dawkins said.

Dawkins said investigators had “a ton” of leads, but nothing was concrete. The ATF is offering a $10,000 reward to help identify the bomber

I am very thankful he and the boys are expected to survive.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.

 

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20110922/NEWS05/109220563/In-Monroe-shocking-car-bombing-an-unclear-motive

 

http://www.lydenlaw.com/

COMMENTS

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  • ashland_avenue

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-car-bombing-dad-911-car-blew-kids/story?id=14579374

  • ashland_avenue

    http://www.monroenews.com/article/20110922/NEWS01/110929988

  • ashland_avenue

    EWhen I was young, we lived a few blocks from the site of Richard Speck’s slaying of seven nurses. Mother knew each of them, including the one who survived by hiding under a bed soaked in blood.

    Teams of reporters came to study us including some from newsweeklies. We were described then as middle middle.

    I don’t recall however being as disturbed about the nurses as I am upset about the attempted murder of Eric and his sons. Police now say the bomb, stuffed with ball bearings, was placed under the front passenger side on car’s exterior.

    Accorsing to press accts, Erik and family had lived for several years in Ottowa Hills suburb of Toledo. Think larger, gracious homes a la Short Hills, Chicago North Shore or Beverly Hills. They moved from there across the state line to LaSalle Twp, where the boys attended Catholic school in the County seat.

    My sense about him at the time Erik was representing me was, This is a straight shooter, a good man. When I first heard about the bombing, it seemed entirely plausible that he might be still working in a national security agency. However, print and electronic media are now pointing to parties in a contested divorce as persons of interest.

    I have cousins who live in Israel, facing the daily onslought of incoming missiles. Others whp survived the German invasion of Eastern Europe and successive concentration camps. Like the nurses slayings, that all seemed so long ago and far away.

    Two middle school age boys en route to a football practice, however, now in hospital having ball bearings removed, seems much too much to digest. Perhaps not a teaching moment of any kind. An unforgettable one nevertheless.

    They are all in my prayers