WICHITA, KAN. — The 51-year-old man held on suspicion of killing prominent abortion provider Dr. George Tiller belonged to anti-government militia groups, had been convicted of carrying explosives in his car and was outraged by the doctor's speedy acquittal on abortion-related charges, authorities and antiabortion activists said Monday.
Scott Roeder had attended a demonstration outside a Kansas City, Kan., abortion clinic two weeks ago and spoke of traveling to Wichita for Tiller's trial, said longtime antiabortion activist Eugene Frye.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, June 03, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Abortion activist: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Scott Roeder, the suspect in the killing of an abortion provider in Kansas, referred to abortion protester Richard Schilling as Robert Schilling.
Authorities and friends described Roeder as a soft-spoken but intense man who held low-paying jobs and normally spent his time chatting about the illegality of the federal income tax or esoteric interpretations of the Old Testament.
But Frye said he noticed a difference on May 16.
"He said he'd been down to Wichita for George Tiller's trial, and he said it was an absolute sham," Frye said. "He seemed agitated -- but agitation for Scott, for a lot of people would be normal."
An investigation spurred by former Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, a strong abortion foe, led to charges that Tiller failed to consult with an independent physician, as required by state law, before performing late-term abortions in his Wichita clinic. Antiabortion activists recall seeing Roeder in the courtroom. On March 27, the jury took less than an hour to find Tiller not guilty.
One of the last doctors in the country to perform late-term abortions, Tiller, 67, was shot to death in the foyer of his Wichita church Sunday.
Three hours later, authorities stopped a 1993 Ford Taurus matching the description of the shooter's outside Kansas City and arrested Roeder. According to media reports from the scene, there was a lone rose in the rear window, a marker of the antiabortion movement.
He is being held without bail in Wichita by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department.
Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. sent U.S. marshals to protect various abortion providers nationwide from copycat attacks. Federal authorities, echoing police, said they thought Tiller's killer acted alone.
For nearly 20 years, Tiller had been a lightning-rod in the abortion debates for his insistence on performing abortions into the ninth month of pregnancy. He said he was trying to save mothers' lives or terminate pregnancies that would have led to the birth of deformed children who never could have survived.
