The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 20

20 THE BOSTON GLOBE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1994 Shootings at Brookline abortion clinics 'Domestic terrorism' CLINIC TERROR Abortion vio hits home: 2 sh Hence ot dead Recictfon by officials and thoseon both sides of the abortion issue to yesterday's shootings at clinics in Brookline. Preterm Shootings in Brookline 10 a.m. Gunman enters Planned Parenthood clinic at 1031 Beacon St and shoots four people, one fatally. There was no guard on duty at the clinic. No patients were hurt Gunman leaves Planned Parenthood clinic.

10:10 a.m. Gunman enters Preterm Health Services clinic at 1842 Beacon St and asks the receptionist, "Is this When she responds yes, he takes a rifle from a duffel bag and begins shooting, killing tho receptionist and wounding two others. A security guard fires at the gunman and may have wounded him. The gunman drops the duffel bag and leaves the building carrying his rifle. A witness says the gunman fired into a parked car outside the building.

Planned Parenthood 1031 Beacon Street SHOOTINGS Continued from Page 1 with a quiet, methodical detachment that witnesses described as unnerving, the gunman was said to have uttered only a few words, asking if he was in the right place at the second clinic. In choosing his targets, he apparently made no distinction between clinic workers, patients and their companions or bystanders. An antiabortion protester said she was among the bystanders fired at. Police were comparing descriptions of the gunman with lists of antiabortion extremists kept by law enforcement officials. The wounded guard said he recognized the gunman as an antiabortion protester, but police said they had not determined whether the gunman had links to antiabortion organizations.

Search for Audi Police said they were unsure if the gunman had an accomplice, but they were searching for a late-model beige Audi that some witnesses reported seeing at the scenes. In both instances, the gunman walked past a small knot of antiabortion protesters who have become a daily fixture outside the clinics. Police said the gunman may have been photographed by a surveillance camera inside one of the clinics, and perhaps by a protester who was videotaping outside. The gunman struck first at about 10 a.m. inside a crowded waiting room at the Planned Parenthood clinic at 1031 Beacon killing the receptionist, Shannon Lowney, 25, of Arlington, and wounding three other people while 30 to 40 patients and those accompanying them watched in horror.

One of those wounded, An-jana Agrawal, 30, of Cambridge, was a medical assistant at the clinic, while two others, Antonio Hernandez, 32, of Worcester, and Brian Murray, 22, of Hingham, had accompanied women to the clinic, which in addition to abortions provides reproductive services, including contraception. The gunman then apparently drove or was driven to the Preterm Health Services clinic at 1842 Beacon about two miles away. On the way, he would have passed another abortion clinic but apparently made no attempt to enter it. About 10 minutes after the first shooting, a man fitting the same description walked into the first-floor office and asked the woman behind the desk, Leanne Nichols, 38, of Salem, N.H., "Is this Preterm?" When Nichols replied yes, he put down a black duffel bag, pulled out what witnesses described as a hunting rifle and shot her at point-blank range. He then wounded a clinic worker, Jane Sauer, 29, of Cambridge, who nun i i 100 YARDS was standing at a nearby photocopying machine.

A security guard, Richard J. Seron, 45, of Quincy, who rushed to the office after hearing the shots and cries for help. Seron confronted the gunman in a corridor and the two exchanged gunfire. The gunman dropped the duffel bag and fled. Police said they found no evidence the gunman was wounded.

Sauer, Seron and Hernandez were listed in stable condition last night at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Agrawal and Murray were recovering at Beth Israel Hospital. They were reported in serious but stable condition. A second security guard was supposed to be on duty at Preterm, but was late for work, according to the wife of the building's security chief. The guard showed up about 10 minutes after the shooting.

There was no guard at Planned Parenthood. At Repro Associates, a clinic located on Beacon Street between the two targeted clinics, workers said they felt lucky the gunman bypassed them. They suggested he avoided them because their armed security guard has worked there for more than two years and is known to many protesters. While descriptions varied, most witnesses said he was white, about 6 feet tall, handsome, in his late 20s or early 30s, with dark, fluffy hair, dressed in a black sweater, dark blue shirt and a three-quarter length black trench coat. Like many other clinics nationwide, the two Brookline facilities and members of their staffs have received threats from antiabortion extremists over the years, but most clinic workers said the threats had not been more frequent or sinister of late.

Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans, however, said there had been an "increased threat level" at local clinics and that it had caused him to step up consultations with other law enforcement officials. He refused to elaborate. FBI spokesman William McMul-lin said the FBI had received a report of only one threat, against a doctor, in recent months. He said the doctor was called at home. Gov.

Weld called the gunman a "terrorist" and offered State Police to guard clinics across the state. There are about a dozen clinics that perform abortions in Massachusetts, and about twice that number of hos-, pitals also do the procedure. Abortion clinics throughout the state closed yesterday for the three-day holiday weekend, some of them early because of the shootings. Many will re-open Tuesday with beefed-up security. "No one is going to settle moral arguments by violence in Massachusetts," said Weld, standing outside the Brookline police station with Norfolk District Attorney William Delahunt.

US Attorney General Janet Reno, who had promised to aggressively pursue violent antiabortion extremists following the assassinations of two abortion doctors in Pensacola, in the last two years, said yesterday it was impossible to guarantee safety at abortion clinics. "Law enforcement in America does not have sufficient resources to deal with all threats," she said. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Robin Tardo agreed, saying, "I'm not sure what security you use to Murray and Hernandez, who was struck in the chest, abdomen and buttocks. Minutes later, the gunman walked through the double glass doors at Preterm's entrance, then checked several first-floor offices before finding people in one of them. The former manager of the building that houses Preterm, who would give only his first name, Harold, said he saw the shootings.

"He's about eight yards from me," said Harold, whose hands were bloodied from helping victims. "He comes in and turns to the girl. He says to the girl on the 'Is this She says yes. He drops the black duffel bag on the floor and pulls out a rifle from the bag. It was a hunting rifle." Harold, in an interview, said the gunman fired into Nichols' chest from about a yard away.

"He couldn't miss her," he said. Harold said the gunman then shot Sauer in the back and pelvis as she stood at a copier. "Where I was sitting, there was a little office nearby," Harold said. "I got myself in there, shut the door and yelled for security. The security guard came in and pulled his gun and ran down the corridor.

He got shot out there." Seron was hit in both shoulders and his left arm. Surreal scene Deborah Gaines, who had stepped outside the Preterm building to smoke a cigarette, heard the shots as soon as she stepped into the lobby. She said she saw a young woman in a purple jacket fall to the floor, covered with blood. Gaines said the scene was surreal, as the gunman walked past his victim, a man who had fallen in the lobby, and other stunned bystanders, saying nothing, occasionally firing randomly. Gaines, 27, said she backed out of the building when she realized what was happening.

"He didn't say anything," she said. "The gun did all the saving. He was just trying to get away." She said the gunman fired at bystanders outside the clinic, including her. One of the bullets hit the windshield of a parked car, but no one was struck. Gaines said she ducked beneath a brick gateway and fled through an open metal gate into a parking lot.

Kathy Circeo, a receptionist at a dentist's office a few doors down from Planned Parenthood, said she saw a man videotaping outside the clinic when she arrived for work shortly before 8 a.m., and again two hours later when she went to feed her parking meter. She said the man is a frequent protester and is often outside the clinic with a camcorder. Clinic workers say the videotaping is meant to intimidate women who come to the clinic. Susan Newsom, a Planned Parenthood official, said that clinic relies on off-duty Brookline police for security, but does not always have a private detail because it is expensive. (Contributing to this story were Globe Staffers Lynda Gorov, David Armstrong, Dan Golden, Ric Kahn, Howard Manly, Alice Dembner, Don Aucoin and John EUement, and contributing reporters Arthur O'Shea and David Pohchanin.) Health Service 'CAMBRiDGyVl HFwmn' 1 BOSTON (93, BROOKLINE 'H rianneo vnunnni 128 1 I MILTON DEDHAM 2 MILES MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE'.

BROOKLINE BOSTON 'f Green Unegoe 7 underground Audubon 7 Preterm Hearth Services 1842 Beacon Street ML, -i's 3 BROOKLINE 'V. GLOBE STAFF GRAPHICR. KUO, O. BUTLER dale, president of the Washington-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and one of several abortion rights advocates who rushed to Brookline in a show of support, said abortion opponents had created a climate that make acts like yesterday's shootings inevitable. "The religious right has got to understand their complicity in this," she said.

"With the violent rhetoric, the demonizing of the opposition, it's inevitable that it would lead to this. There is so much evil being done by people professing to act in the name of God and that is nothing short of blasphemy." Witnesses; clinic workers and police gave the following account: The gunman walked up the short stairs to the Planned Parenthood clinic, located on the first floor of a brownstone, turned left inside the lobby and was apparently buzzed into the waiting area. To the right of the entrance, the receptionist, Lowney, was sitting at her desk. Without a word, the gunman shot Lowney in the head, killing her instantly. He then turned his gun on Agrawal, shooting her in the abdomen, and i iS Ml CW St I ft it HESTER STREET BRIGHTON Circle 5 Kjmvyi n- prevent something like this.

You can't be a health care provider and be an armed fortress." Most casualties Although antiabortion extremists nationwide have shot doctors and firebombed empty clinics, yesterday's shootings were the most random attacks, with the most casualties, yet. Some abortion rights advocates suggested the Brookline shootings were evidence of growing desperation on the fringes of the antiabortion movement. Others, however, including those who are opposed to abortion on moral and religious grounds, said the attack was the isolated act of a depraved individual. Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law, a leading abortion opponent, said the shootings were "reprehensible" and "without justification," and asked antiabortion activists to end their "prayerful presence" outr side area clinics. Following the shootings, Boston police posted a cruiser outside Law's residence in Brighton.

Rev. Katherine Hancock Rags- l- BILL CLINTON President No matter where we stand on the issue of abortion, all Americans must stand together in condemning this tragic and brutaj act. I am strongly committed to ending this form of domestic terrorism. I have called for a thorough investigation into this attack, and Attorney General Reno and FBI Director Freeh have already begun that task. I urge local officials to work closely with the federal law enforcement community.

CARDINAL BERNARD LAW Archbishop of Boston The fatal shootings of this morning were reprehensible acts of violence with absolutely no justification whatsoever. It is important to state that violence is in total contra diction to all that the prolife movement represents. To those-ifi-the prolife movement who express their commitment thrbughlprayerful presence at abortion" clinics, I would ask that yoU from such manifesta-tionsTo those who favor would request that this tragic and criminal act of apparently one individual not become the occasion of universalizing blame. I call on all in the community to put aside any thought or intention of violence. WILLIAM WELD Governor My heart goes out to the victims of the shootings and their families! This type of attempted intimidation of women getting access to health care services to which they're entitled obviously is completely unacceptable and cannot be permitted to succeed.

I've instructed Public Safety Secretary Kathleen O'Toole to make available State Police officers to guard health clinics around the state at the option of the local police chief. If they would like the help they are going to to have it and if they want to handle it themselves, that's fine too, but this man is nothing other than a terrorist and he cannot be permitted any form of satisfaction. Neither he nor his likes; and no one is going to settle moral arguments by violence in Massachusetts. And the last thing 1 would say is that nobody's cause was advanced today. NICK) NICHOLS GAMBLE President, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts This is a terrible, terrible tragedy! It's a heartbreaker, of course.

We have good security. Clearly, it wasn't good enough. PAMELA MARALDO President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America It is so difficult to speak about this no words can ex press our horror at this vicious act and our grief at the death and wounding of good, caring people. I am out-raged by this violence-. How often will women and health care providers be the target of murderers? We ask law enforcement officials to work with -us-to protect our clinics, our staff and our patients.

We call for an end to violence, an end to the ugly, inciteful demonstrations that provoke violence, an end to. the rhetoric that condones violence This reign of terror musl end. i i I ft gtr jjr i' it 1 Also contributing to this report were staff reporters Don Aucoin, Richard Chacon, John Ellement, Royal Ford, Judith M. Gaines, Jordana Hart, Tom Long, Howard Manly, John Milne and Thomas Palmer and contrUnding reporters Jennifer Buksbaum, Matt Hall, Clare Kittredge, John Laidler, Michele R. McPhee, Arthur O'Shea, David Polo-chanin and Pamela Walsh, Police find gun receipts in bag at clinic; target N.H.

man MANHUNT Continued from Page 1 holds more than five rounds of ammunition, the sources said. The weapon used in the attacks is believed to have been a fold-up rifle, which was not recovered, the sources said. A clerk from a gun store listed on the receipts last night identified a composite sketch of the abortion clinic gunman as the man who purchased ammunition from him and took target practice, sources said. The sources said last night they had not yet established a motive for the shootings, but added they had not linked the attacks to any antiabortion group. A security guard at Preterm Health Services clinic, site of the second clinic, was injured in a gunfight with the suspect.

The guard told police he believed he shot the assailant when the two exchanged gunfire, however crime-scene technicians said that based on the evidence at the clinic, they could not be sure the assailant was hit. Whe security guard ajso said he thought he recognized the gunman from previous anti-abortion demonstrations at Preterm. An impressive force of federal, state and local law enforcement agents pursued information from a number of witnesses as they unsuccessfully searched for the man accused of killing two people at the clinics, located 2 miles apart. At least 200 police officers, aided by helicopters and dogs, scoured Brookline and nearby areas in a futile hunt for the man who calmly entered the clinics and opened fire on unsuspecting employees and visitors. Police in neighboring states participated in the investigation after an alert was issued by Massachusetts authorities.

The suspect was described as armed and dangerous. Investigators compiled photographs of abortion protesters prosecuted by the state attorney general in the past several years for violating court orders to stay away from abortion clinics. The search immediately after the shootings was complicated by conflicting descriptions of the suspect and vague descriptions of a car that may have been used in an escape, police said. All of the witnesses said the man was dressed in black, including a three-quarter-length black overcoat An initial description identified the man as 5 feet 7 inches with long, curly brown hair and in his 30s. A later description identified the man as a white male, 6 feet 1 inch, with short dark hair.

Norfolk County District Attorney William Delahunt said he understood there were conflicting descriptions, but declined to say if there may have been more than one gunman or to give any other explanation for the differing identifications. Some witnesses reported the gunman fled in a car, and police searched for both a beige Audi and a white Honda during the day. Police were also searching for possible videotaped shots of the gunman. The area inside the Preterm clinic may have been taped by surveillance cameras, sources said. In addition, neighbors said a man who regularly videotapes outside the site of the first attack, the Planned Parenthood clinic, was vi-deotapingsyesterday morning.

Police also questioned Barbara Bell, president of Massachusetts Blacks for Life, about what she might have seen. She was in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic yesterday at the time of the shootings. And a police officer videotaped the crowd that gathered after the shootings in case the suspect returned to survey his work. The efforts of Brookline and State Police yesterday were bolstered by a strong federal presence. US Attorney Donald Stearn said he had spoken to Attorney General Janet Reno and pledged a wealth of federal resources to the case.

Delahunt said, "Every available law enforcement resource is being utilized" to catch the gunman. Information for this story also was provided by Globe staff members Stephen Kurkjian, Howard Manly, Thomas Palmer, Royal Ford and John Milne and contributors Pam Ferdinand, tJohn Laidler and Clare Kitty dge. j..