DAYTON, Ohio, March 1 (UPI) — Five years before allegedly shooting his pastor brother to death inside a church, an Ohio man sued his brother and other family members over an unpaid inheritance.
Officials held Daniel Schooler, 68, without bond after his Sunday arrest for allegedly opening fire in St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church. The Rev. William Schooler, 70, died in the shooting as services concluded.
Daniel Schooler was expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Dayton Municipal Court.
It’s unclear what prompted the shooting, but new details about previous legal disputes between family members may provide a motive.
In 2011, Daniel Schooler sued his brother and other family members requesting his inheritance from the church’s council. The suit said the father of the two men died in 1973 without leaving a will, and thus Daniel Schooler was entitled to half the market value of the church’s property, as well as other real estate. A judge ruled documents submitted in the case indicated the church property belonged entirely to church trustees, and ruled in favor of William Schooler and other identified co-defendants.
“This was somewhat of a domestic situation between family members and the public is safe,” said Sgt. Creigee Coleman of the Dayton Police Department.
Daniel Schooler, the alleged gunman, had confrontations with the law prior to Sunday’s incident. He was charged with felonious assault in 2001, a case in which court documents noted he “may be mentally ill and in need of treatment;” a 2002 police report says he attacked a woman, in a case resulting in a two-year prison sentence; in 2007 a friend said Schooler attacked him with a gold club; and in 2008 two men said he threw a hammer at them, and approached them with a 6 inch knife.
In the police report of the 2008 incident, the men stated Daniel Schooler had mental problems and tended toward violence when missing his medication.
