Steve Schnabel is the former Colonel of the Medina
Police Department (North Dakota). Steven Schnabel graduated from the North Dakota Law Enforcement Training
Center in April of 1981. He is also a staff sergeant for the North Dakota Army National Guard of which he has been a member
for over 19 years. Steve Schnabel is the co-author of It's All About Power.
According to the book description of
It's All About Power, “On February 13, 1983, the US Marshals Service was summoned to the
small North Dakota town of Medina to arrest a man by the name of Gordon Kahl, a known tax protester and former member of the
Posse Comitatus. The marshals had an arrest warrant for Kahl and were notified that he was in Medina by Stutsman County Deputy
Sheriff Brad Kapp.
On a recent television program about
how the power of the IRS is getting out of hand, assuming people are guilty until they prove their innocence, the show used
a lead in of a picture of a wanted poster of Gordon Kahl announcing, "It all started with this man". The Medina
shoot-out between Gordon Kahl and US Marshals was the first stop on a dangerous trail, which has lead to Ruby Ridge, Waco
and Oklahoma City. Darrell Graf and Steve Schnabel were both members of the Medina Police Department, Graf being the Chief
and Schnabel the Colonel.
After finding out that the marshals
were on their way to Medina, Graf and Schnabel did some quick planning and gathered members of the ambulance squad and rescue
squad at the fire hall to prepare for what they thought could be a bloody shoot-out. Kahl had stated on several previous occasions
that he would not go back to prison-he would go down fighting and take at least two enemies with him.
The marshals arrived at Medina and
eventually cornered Kahl just north of town by a small farmstead. Kahl had his wife Joan and son Yorie with him, as well as
friends Scott Faul, David Broer and Vernon Wegner. After nine minutes of shouting back and forth to one another, a shot rang
out and one of the marshals was fatally wounded. There was a short pause and then a hail of gunfire, which lasted 20-30 seconds.
When the smoke cleared two marshals were dead, one marshal critically wounded and two local officers wounded. Kahl escaped
under a heavy veil of fog that evening, eventually making his way to the state of Arkansas.
Steve Schnabel was one of the local
officers wounded in the gun battle and Darrell Graf was on the other side of the hill blocking traffic from entering the scene
and coordinating the ambulance and rescue squads to positions for immediate response if needed. On June 3, 1983 law enforcement
caught up with Kahl in Smithville, AR where he was hold up. They surrounded the house he was in and a barrage of gunfire ensued.
The house was set on fire and virtually everything inside was destroyed, including the body of a man they believed to be Gordon
Kahl. County Sheriff Gene Matthews was also killed during the shooting, but it is still unclear just when and where he received
the fatal gunshot wound. Graf and Schnabel, former Medina police officers, have teamed together to write a book entitled IT'S
ALL ABOUT POWER.
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