Toledo, OH – The FBI has alerted black and Jewish leaders in the Detroit area that their names were on a list kept by an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer charged with illegally possessing an arsenal of weapons, community leaders said.
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Richard Schmidt, 47, of Toledo, who served time for a 1990 manslaughter conviction for killing a man in Toledo, was indicted last month on federal weapons charges. There were no allegations of ethnic or racial stalking.
But Scott Kaufman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said Friday that FBI agents warned him that Schmidt had a notebook that listed his group and its leaders. Agents asked about any information the Jewish organization had.
“It wasn’t a specific hit list. That term would be inappropriate, as far as the message I got from the FBI,” Kaufman said. “They wanted to know if we had any more information, which we did not. … It didn’t shake me up. It just reinforced the message that we need to take security seriously.”
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, head of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, told The Detroit News that his group was also on the list. Anthony wasn’t immediately available for additional comment Friday.
Schmidt is locked up awaiting trial on the weapons charges.
There was no immediate comment from his attorney. Email and phone messages were left Friday at his Toledo office.
The FBI warnings were first reported by NBC News.
Schmidt was charged with illegally possessing 18 firearms, body armor and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition and trafficking in counterfeit clothing marked with brand names such as the National Football League, Nike and Reebok.
The indictment said guns seized from Schmidt included pistols, shotguns and assault rifles.