Prosecutors: Man wanted to start race war

Associated Press

TOLEDO

A man who stockpiled weapons and ammunition at a shopping mall storage room was preparing to start a race war and planned to carry out assassinations based on race, religion and ethnicity, federal prosecutors said.

Richard Schmidt, who pleaded guilty to possession of firearms and trafficking in counterfeit goods in July, is due to be sentenced next month.

He was “a one-man army of racial and religious hate,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. Schmidt’s attorney disputed the accusations, calling them “over-the-top.”

Prosecutors charged Schmidt nearly a year ago after finding rifles, shotguns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition inside the mall where he ran a sports memorabilia store in Bowling Green.