Client eyed after lawyer's Volvo explodes while driving kids to football practice

Authorities investigating a car bombing that injured a lawyer and his two sons in Monroe, Mich., suspect that one of the man's clients may have planted the explosive, sources said.

Erik G. Chappell was driving his sons to football practice late Tuesday afteoon when a pipe bomb planted in his Volvo station wagon exploded.

Chappell, 42, was hurt, but his boys, Grant, 13, and Cole, 11, took the brunt of the blast and were more seriously injured.

Investigators told the Monroe Evening News that the plotter packed the pipe bomb with shrapnel and placed it inside the car under the passenger seat, where one of the boys was sitting at the time of the blast.

It wasn't clear where the car was when the bomb was planted.

No arrests have been made, but sources told the newspaper that authorities are zeroing in on one of Chappell's clients.

Chappell's practice focuses on business disputes and family law. He has offices in Monroe and Sylvania, Ohio.

Authorities have offered a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.

On Thursday, police released a recording of a 911 call made by Chappell just moments after the blast.

In the recording, Chappell sounds shaken but under control as he urges the police operator to send help fast.

"We have a bad accident," Chappell says. "My car blew up with two kids. You've been called on it already, but I'm telling you what's going on with the boys, ok?"

Chappell says his boys have "significant leg injuries," adding that one boy's buttocks are "chewed up pretty good."

"Deep tissue wounds. They are bleeding, I need someone here now," Chappell says.

The recording was posted on the Toledo Blade's website.

Donald Dawkins, a special agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, called the bombing a "heinous" crime and said the victims were lucky to be alive.

The principal at the boys' school, St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School in Monroe, posted a statement on the school's website saying the boys and their father were stable and "in good spirits."

"All are expected to have a full recovery," principal Michelle Sontag said. "I have spoken with Mrs. Chappell twice today, and she has kept me abreast of their improving conditions."

Meanwhile, lawyers and judges in Monroe said the horrific incident served as a painful reminder about the risks associated with their jobs.

"I hope to God that whoever did this gets caught," Monroe County Circuit Judge Michael A. Weipert told the Monroe Evening News. "This is very conceing to this court. I just pray for his children."