A Southampton Blowup Over the Statue of Dick Dowling in Hermann Park

A SOUTHAMPTON BLOWUP OVER THE STATUE OF DICK DOWLING IN HERMANN PARK For the second time in 5 years, FBI and ATF officials on Sunday raided the house at 2025 Albans St. in search of explosives. Both ventures resulted in the arrest of one of its residents, now-25-year-old Andrew Cecil Earhart Schneck. Schneck, who was released from probation last year, had pled guilty in federal court 2 years earlier for knowingly storing explosives in the 2013 incident. He was arrested again this past Saturday night after a Houston park ranger reportedly found him kneeling in the bushes with tubes of nitroglycerin and the explosive HMTD, a timer, wires, a battery, and a detonator in front of the Carrara marble statue of Confederate commander and Houston saloon owner Richard Dowling. The statue was the first public artwork ever created by the city of Houston, and originally stood in Market Square outside of city hall when it was created in 1905. Albans St. and the alley to the south of it between Hazard and Wilton streets in Southampton have been under evacuation orders since Sunday, and gas service to the area has been turned off; law enforcement officials say they are working to “safely and properly dispose of” hazardous materials found inside the home “through a series of controlled detonations” — that may take place this afternoon. Nearby residents should expect to hear loud noises and smoke as a result of the detonations, they warn; there’s also a possibility of damage to adjacent properties. [Houston Chronicle] Photo of Richard Dowling statue at Hermann Park: Patrick Feller [license]

9 Comment

  • Another ALT Left idiot to balance out the ALT Right, what we need is an CTRL ALT DELETE…..

  • “at least some of the programming seems to be working, pinky.”

  • ^^^^:::::slow clap evolving into standing ovation::::::

  • Your modern democratic party at work.

  • When I was young my father always voted Democrat because they represented the “hard working family”. I’m not a true Conservative- having gone from being an altar boy to not giving a crap about religion, but the left has lost its way. Two blocks away from every media fed frenzy America keeps doing great things and families and kids continue to advance themselves. When the helicopter camera accidentally pans back there are cars moving normally and all races taking advantage of every healthy day they have. People, stop watching television news!

  • Um this guy was a nut job who nearly committed an act of terrorism (in a park where I jog 3 times a week). He probably doesn’t even have political views – was just looking for something to blow up, and based on recent news headlines, thought this would make a big splash. Regardless, the “democratic party” had nothing to do with this, and the article mentions nothing of a larger left-wing conspiracy.

    Some of these comments are divisive and offensive (@Cody, J). Can we leave politics out of it please?

  • @cody:
    The Comet Pizzagate shooting, James Alex Fields (Charlottesville), Portland train stabbing, Dylan Roof, etc. (and the list goes on and on and on…..): YOUR MODERN REPUBLICAN PARTY AT WORK!!!
    .
    Look at me! I can do this too!

  • I don’t think this had anything to do with politics. He was playing with explosives in 2013 a long time before the statue controversy got into full swing. He is a loner and a disturbed young man who should have been locked up or gotten some serious therapy the first time he was arrested. I am just very grateful to the park ranger who noticed him and very grateful he didn’t blow up his house and neighboring houses or place a bomb in a public building. This could have been so much worse.

  • fdm: “He is a loner and a disturbed young man who should have been locked up or gotten some serious therapy the first time he was arrested. ”
    .
    You just described half the democratic party. ZING
    .
    (I KID, I KID. My apologies for bring politics into this. It was sort of in jest given that support for statue removal seems to be centered in one party. So when a kid wants to blow one up, it’s an easy jab to make)