First look: This old school photo shows Andrew Schneck, 25, who is suspected of attempting to blow up a Confederate statue at a Houston Park
A 25-year-old Texas man who has been arrested for allegedly trying to plant a bomb on a Confederate statue at a Houston Park has previously been convicted of storing explosives at his parents’ house.
According to prosecutors, Andrew Schneck was caught on Saturday evening kneeling next to a statue of Richard Dowling, a lieutenant in the Confederate army, in Hermann Park.
A Houston park ranger found Schneck holding two boxes with duct tape and wires as well as a bottle and a small tube containing compounds that tests later revealed were explosive materials, according to a criminal complaint.
Schneck was charged with attempting to maliciously damage or destroy property receiving federal financial assistance. He made his initial court appearance on Monday and was to remain in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Thursday.
It has since emerged that in October 2013, federal agents searched a home where Schneck lived with his parents looking for chemicals that could be used to make nerve or tear gas.
In 2014 Schneck, who has a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, was arrested on a charge of improperly storing explosive materials.
Schneck was allegedly found kneeling near a statue of Richard Dowling, a lieutenant in the Confederate army, in Hermann Park (above) in Houston on Saturday with a box of explosives
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years of probation and a fine of nearly $160,000, according to Click2Houston. Last November, a federal judge approved a request by Schneck’s attorneys for early termination of his sentence.
In his motion, his defense lawyer had written that Schneck ‘is not a risk to public safety’ and that ‘his focus is no longer concentrated on high-risk activities.’
Investigators were still determining a motive for Saturday’s attempted bombing of the park monument but there are ‘no indications of any additional threats to the Houston area,’ said Deron Ogletree, assistant special agent in charge with the FBI’s Houston office.
Authorities allege that Schneck was caught with a plastic bottle with what is likely nitroglycerin, an active ingredient in the manufacture of explosives, and with a small black aluminum tube that contained a white powder that tests showed was Hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, which is used as an initiating or primary explosive.
ln its undiluted form, nitroglycerin is one of the world’s most powerful explosives.
When he was confronted by the park ranger, Schneck tried to drink the bottle that had the nitroglycerin but spit out the liquid and then poured it out on the ground.
‘When asked by [the park ranger] if he wanted to harm the statue, Schneck responded that he did, and that he did not “like that guy,”’ according to the criminal complaint.
The FBI swarmed a home in Houston on Monday near where Schneck’s parents live. It came just days after the 25-year-old was arrested for allegedly trying to bomb a statue
Houston firefighters arrive a the scene of a ‘law enforcement operation’ led by the FBI in Houston linked to Schneck’s arrest
FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Houston Police work at the scene on the 2000 block of Albans Road Monday
The statue is honoring Richard W. ‘Dick’ Dowling, an Ireland-born Houston saloon owner. His Confederate unit defeated a Union invasion force at the Battle of Sabine Pass in 1863.
Dowling was hailed as a war hero in Houston, and the end of the war saw him resume his successful business career until his death in 1867.
The Houston police bomb squad said a timer, wires connected to a homemade detonator, battery and the Hexamethylene triperoxide diamine found in Schneck’s possession ‘were capable to produce a viable explosive device,’ according to court documents.
Schneck told police he had other chemicals at his Houston home. On Monday, houses located near Schneck’s home were evacuated as authorities worked to dispose of materials found in his home, where he lives with his mother, Cecily Horton, who is a Yale-educated art appraiser and a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Andrew’s father, also named Andrew Schenck, was doctorate student in urban and regional sciences at Texas A&M at the time of his son’s first arrest in 2013.
The materials were disposed of during a small controlled explosion at the address on Monday afternoon, according to Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña.
FBI agents evacuated several homes near where Schneck’s parents lived on Monday after finding ‘significant hazardous materials’ inside a property
Authorities would not confirm if the materials found in the home on Monday were related to Schneck’s arrest
Authorities declined to specify what materials they found in the home, citing the ongoing investigation.
Schneck’s mother told authorities that her son uses one of their properties ‘to conduct his chemistry experiments,’ according to the complaint.
If convicted of the charges against him, Schneck faces up to 40 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had previously announced the city had begun compiling an inventory of its Confederacy-related statues to determine if any action should be taken with regard to them.
‘I’m going to ask everybody in this city to remain calm. I understand everybody has a First Amendment right. But you do not have a First Amendment Right to deface any of the public art, any of the statues, the monuments that exist in this city,’ Turner said.
Schneck’s arrest comes just over a week after the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist rally over the removal of a statue honoring Confederate General robertE Lee resulted in three deaths, and the removals of other statues nationwide, including at Duke University and late Sunday evening at the University of Texas at Austin.