082193 Abort clinic attack arrest

Shot doc goes back to work killing babies again

An anti-abortion radical was jailed yesterday in the wounding of a controversial Kansas doctor, who returned to work a day after the shooting.

The suspected shooter, Rachelle Shannon, described as a 37-year-old militant with a history of abortion clinic arrests, was captured yesterday in Oklahoma City and was to be returned to Kansas to face attempted murder charges.

The shooting of Dr. George Tiller as he left his Wichita abortion clinic Thursday night was the second shooting of an abortion doctor in the nation in the past Eve months.

Tiller, said to be the only physician in Kansas who regularly performs third-trimester abortions, was shot in both arms as he got into his car outside the clinic.

He was not wearing a bulletproof vest, as he often does. The clinic has been the scene of numerous antiabortion protests.

Terry Adelson, an antiabortion protester who witnessed the shooting, told Cable News Network, "There were three bright flashes and the (car's) window shattered."

Tiller was treated at a local hospital and released.

His shooting follows the March 10 slaying of Dr. David Gunn during a demonstration outside the Pensacola, Fla., clinic where he worked. An anti-abortion advocate has been charged in that case.

Shannon was arrested yesterday as she attempted to return a rental car at an airport in Oklahoma City, 160 miles from Wichita.

Known to friends as "Shelley," she lives in a one-story house in Klamath Falls, Ore., authorities said. She is married and the mother of two teenagers.

She is a former editor of The Brockhoeft Report, which reportedly has advocated the use of force to stop abortions, and she has participated in anti-abortion rallies as far away as Atlanta, sources said.

She was among the defendants in a lawsuit brought by the Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, Ore., against protesters from Operation Rescue and Advocates for Life Ministries, who violated a court order against trespassing at the clinic.

Shannon was quoted in the May 22, 1990, Grants Pass (Ore.) Daily Courier as saying: "If you see somebody killing another person and you step between them, you can expect to get hurt. Getting hurt isn't going to stop us.