The FBI says that an Ohio man indicted last month for illegally possessing an arsenal of firearms also planned to murder Jewish and black community leaders in Detroit, Michigan.
Federal investigators discovered 18 weapons inside the home of 47-year-old Richard Schmidt back in December, and in January unsealed an indictment that said owning that arsenal and the over 40,000 rounds of ammunition also confiscated violated the terms of parole that he’s been obligated to adhere by after being convicted of homicide in 1990. As an investigation widened, though, authorities uncovered more than just a fortress of firearms.
Now investigators say a search of Schmidt’s home has turned up a “kill list,” and that he may have planned to travel to nearby Detroit in order to assassinate a local NAACP president and a director for a Jewish organization.
Steven M. Dettelbach, the U.S. attorney in Cleveland, adds to NBC that the FBI“averted a catastrophe in this case” when they arrested Schmidt for unlawful possession. A search of his house has also turned up evidence that agents say have suggested Schmidt sympathized with the neo-Nazi movement. Authorities also seized a list of Jewish-owned businesses around the country and paraphernalia from Hitler’s Waffen SS.
