911 Tapes Chronicle Frantic Call by Lawyer: 'My Car Blew Up with Two Kids'
Lawyer Erik Chappell dialed 911 on Tuesday in a frantic call after his Volvo station wagon exploded in an apparent bombing, injuring himself and his two sons.
Chappell was taking his sons Grant, 13, and Cole, 11, to football practice in Monroe, Mich., when the explosion ignited the car and sent flames into the air, the Toledo Blade reports. The Blade and MonroeNews.com obtained transcripts. The Detroit Free Press has the audio.
“We have a bad accident,” Chappell told the dispatcher. “My car blew up with two kids. You’ve been called on it already, but I’m telling you what is going on with my boys. I’ve got two significant leg injuries. … They are chewed up pretty good.”
“They are bleeding,” Chappell said. “I need someone here now,”
A neighbor told the Blade that Chappell was released from the hospital on Wednesday but his sons were more seriously injured. A spokesman for the boys’ school, St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School in Monroe, said in an online statement that the youths and their father “are all in stable conditions and are in good spirits.” Monroe is about 20 miles north of Toledo.
Special Agent Donald Dawkins of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says there are “a ton of leads” in the case, the Detroit Free Press reports. “We have some serious directions that we’re going toward, but none that I can say are concrete,” Dawkins said. A $10,000 reward has been offered in the case.
According to the Blade, federal agents on Wednesday visited Chappell’s law firm, Lyden, Liebenthal & Chappell, which has offices in Sylvania, Ohio, and Monroe, Mich. Chappell is a litigator handling primarily business matters, but he also has a family law practice, according to the firm’s website. Investigators also visited the home of a divorce client in Monroe County, but no one was home, the Blade says.
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyer and His Two Sons Are Injured in Michigan Car Bomb Blast”
Updated at 11:50 a.m. to include Detroit Free Press story linking to audio.
