A man suspected of shooting to death a well-known provider of late-term abortions harbored a burning, “eye for an eye” anger toward abortion doctors.
He once subscribed to a magazine suggesting “justifiable homicide” against them and apparently likened Dr George Tiller to Nazi death-camp doctor Josef Mengele.
Tiller, 67, was serving as an usher during morning services on Sunday when he was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, police said. The gunman fired one shot at Tiller and threatened two other people who tried to stop him.
The suspect, identified by one law enforcement agency as Scott Roeder, 51, was taken into custody some 270km away in a Kansas City suburb about three hours after the shooting.
He was in jail on Monday on suspicion of murder.
Police said it appears the gunman acted alone, and some anti-abortion groups moved quickly to distance themselves from the killing. Outside Tiller’s clinic, the Kansas Coalition for Life placed signs saying members had prayed for Tiller’s change of heart, “not his murder.” Roeder’s ex-wife said his extreme anti-government beliefs contributed to the breakup of their marriage more than a decade ago.
And Roeder’s brother said he suffered from mental illness at various times in his life.
“However, none of us ever saw Scott as a person capable of or willing to take another person’s life. Our deepest regrets, prayers and sympathy go out to the Tiller family during this terrible time,” his brother, David, said in a statement to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
Tiller had been a lightning rod for abortion opponents for decades. The women’s clinic he ran is one of three in the US where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable, and has been the site of repeated protests for about two decades.
A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said that the state has 48 hours to charge anyone who is in custody and said she planned to take the full two days to decide.
Roeder was being booked without bail on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
A law enforcement official said investigators had searched two homes as part of the inquiry into Tiller’s killing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation, said the homes are in Merriam, Kansas, and directly across the border in Kansas City, Missouri.
Roeder’s former wife, Lindsey Roeder, said he had lived at a house in Merriam but moved out months ago.
Roeder’s family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became “very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way,” said his former wife, Lindsey Roeder.
“The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion,” said Lindsey Roeder, who was married to Scott Roeder for 10 years but “strongly disagrees with his beliefs.”
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