ATF Agent May Have Been Target in Priest Bombing

A bomb that seriously injured an Episcopal priest on Monday may have been intended for a retired federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who lived across the street, investigators said Wednesday.

A note attached to the bomb criticized the U.S. government and called for action against the ATF. The last sentence of the quarter-page note read: “At last the time has come for the [illegible] Alabama to unite against the ATF conspiracy.”

Authorities said, however, that they still believe the priest may have been the intended victim. FBI and ATF agents are continuing to search for people who might have wanted to harm the 40-year-old cleric.

“Generally in this type of situation someone who goes to the trouble of making a bomb will do some homework and know who the target is,” said Robert J. Browning, an ATF special agent from the Atlanta office who is assisting in the case.

The priest, the Rev. Mike Schnatterly, has been rector at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Opelika since 1992. He previously worked at churches in Maryland, Florida and Illinois, where he received his master of divinity degree at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston.

Authorities refused to speculate on the identity or motive of the bomber and said they have not ruled out the possibility that the note was a red herring.

A federal official in Washington confirmed Wednesday that a retired ATF agent lived near Schnatterly but doubted that the agent had been the intended victim. “All we have now is the note, and that is powerful circumstantial evidence,” he said. “But in a small town like that, it’s hard to believe he [the bomber] would send it to the wrong location. My view is that the first information that follows an incident like this is oftentimes wrong,” he continued. “More likely, it’s a personal dispute.”

Several antigovernment militias operate in Alabama, including the Gadsden Minutemen, which last year made public a videotape intended to embarrass the ATF. The tape purportedly showed footage of a so-called Good Ol’ Boys Roundup in Tennessee, an annual gathering of ATF agents and other law enforcement officials. The videotape showed a banner that contained racially offensive items.

But officials would not speculate on whether a militia was behind the bombing.

“The person who left the note obviously has some strong antigovernment sentiments,” said Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the ATF’s regional office in Birmingham, Ala. He added that, from the explosive force of the bomb, the perpetrator also clearly intended to kill the target.

Authorities would not name the retired ATF agent whom they said lived across the street from the injured priest, but they said he retired almost 20 years ago, at a time when the ATF in Alabama was involved primarily in battling moonshine and illegal liquor operations.

A man who answered the telephone at the home across the street from Schnatterly’s residence declined comment.

The one thing that investigators would say unequivocally is that the perpetrator is not the so-called Unabomber, a serial bomber who has sent homemade explosive devises to universities and other sites.

According to police, the bomb exploded Monday morning when the priest noticed a cardboard box on the back of his Ford Mustang and picked it up. The car had been parked in his garage, and witnesses said nails contained in the package could be seen stuck in the ceiling and walls after the explosion. Schnatterly was listed in good condition Wednesday in a local hospital.

Times staff writer Ron Ostrow in Washington and researcher Edith Stanley in Atlanta contributed to this story.