Bombing suspect's brother cuts hand off with saw

March 9, 1998

Web posted at: 11:20 p.m. EST (0420 GMT)

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CNN) -- Daniel Rudolph, the brother of Birmingham clinic bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph, purposely cut off one of his hands with an electric saw Sunday, the FBI says.

Sources at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told CNN that Daniel Rudolph videotaped the amputation, stating that on the tape that the amputation was being done to "send a message to the FBI and the media."

An FBI statement released Monday called the action "regrettable and totally unexpected."

Eric Rudolph has been the target of a nationwide manhunt since the day after the January 19 bombing of the New Woman All Women clinic in Birmingham that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse.

Daniel Rudolph is Eric Rudolph's oldest brother and reportedly took care of Eric after their father died when Eric was a teen-ager.

"The FBI has followed standard procedures in conducting the search for Eric Robert Rudolph, a fugitive charged with a fatal abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, including interviewing his brother Daniel Rudolph," the FBI statement said.

"Daniel Rudolph's decision to maim himself is regrettable and totally unexpected, given the nature of the contacts between the FBI and himself," the FBI said.

The FBI said Daniel Rudolph apparently amputated his hand at his home in Ladson, a suburb of Charleston. Rudolph family lawyer James Bell did not return phone calls Monday.