Tragedy: Dr. George Tiller Murdered in Kansas Church
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on June 1, 2009
Dr. George Tiller was murdered at church, May 31, 2009
From Associated Press:
Kan. abortion doc killed in church; suspect heldDr. George Tiller, one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher.
The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was detained some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said.
Although Stolz refused to release the man’s name, Johnson County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Erickson identified the detained man as Scott Roeder. He has not been charged in the slaying and was expected to be taken to Wichita for questioning.
There was no immediate word of the motive Tiller’s assailant. But the doctor’s violent death was the latest in a string of shootings and bombings over two decades directed against abortion clinics, doctors and staff.
Long a focus of national anti-abortion groups, including a summer-long protest in 1991, Tiller was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, Stolz said. Tiller’s attorney, Dan Monnat, said Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time.
The slaying of the 67-year-old doctor is “an unspeakable tragedy,” his widow, four children and 10 grandchildren said in statement. “This is particularly heart-wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.”
The family said its loss “is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence.”
Stolz said all indications were that the gunman acted alone, although authorities were investigating whether he had any connection to anti-abortion groups.
Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy. The clinic was heavily fortified and Tiller often traveled with a bodyguard, but Stolz said there was no indication of security at the church Sunday.
Anti-abortion groups denounced the shooting and stressed that they support only nonviolent protest. The movement’s leaders fear the killing could create a backlash just as they are scrutinizing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose views on abortion rights are not publicly known.
“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down,” Troy Newman, Operation Rescue’s president, said in a statement. “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning.”
This shouldn’t be a political issue, but it has become one. A man has been murdered because of his occupation, one that is controversial, but nonetheless, legal. A man with a family who loved him was gunned down in his place of worship by a thug, a coward, a person who has little value for human life.
Did another Christian murder Dr. Tiller? A suspect is being held, but it is far too premature to say until after all the evidence is gathered, a trial conducted, and a verdict rendered. If a Christian did indeed commit this heinous act, this ultimate sin, he will be punished by the law and by God. But as I already said, it is premature at this point.
But apparently it is not premature for some pro-abortion people. They’ve already determined who is to blame for the murder—no need for due process. Liberal bloggers and newspapers are screaming from the roof tops that yes, yes, it had to be a Christian. No one else. And action must be taken NOW against pro-lifers.
And, according to them, all Christians (whether they are pro-life or pro-choice) have his blood on their hands. Although, many other religions do not condone abortion.
Liberals, the same who’ve been condemning dissenters who have expressed concerns about Supreme Court judge nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s racial bias because of her racially biased remarks, are now condemning an entire religion because of the violent actions of one person who has not yet been formerly arrested nor convicted. Capricious judge and jury for all Christians.
Conservative talk show radio hosts are also being blamed by statist journalists and bloggers for the doctor’s death.
The frenzied liberal mobs, with sharpened pitchforks and lit torches, are gathering to attack pro-life supporters, as well as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly…
From Michelle Malkin:
Tiller’s family is grieving. Those who have jumped to score political points before Tiller is even buried are no better than the Phelps family thugs of the “Westboro Baptist Church” who respect no bounds of civility.
Unfortunately, it’s too much to ask the cable news networks and hyper-partisan snipers on the Internet to have the decency to restrain themselves.
Prepare for a wall-to-wall onslaught of gleeful finger-pointing on the Left and heated responses on the Right.
Prepare for whitewashed hagiographies of Tiller’s career as an abortionist.
Prepare for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s defenders to gloat about vindication.
Prepare for collective demonization of pro-lifers and Christians — and more gratuitous attempts to tar talk radio, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement as responsible for the heinous crime.
Prepare for the continuing redefinition of any and all sharp political disagreement as “hate” — a ruinous trend that inevitably comes back to haunt the hysterical accusers decrying “hate” the loudest.
The murderer is being called “a terrorist.” Not a murderer or an extremist, but a terrorist.
Insanity.
From Christian News Wire,Christian Defense Coalition Condemns Shooting of Dr. George Tiller
WASHINGTON, May 31 /Christian Newswire/Christian and pro-life leaders will hold a news conference in front of the US Supreme Court on Monday, June 1, at 10:00 A.M. to discuss the impact the shooting of Dr. George Tiller will have on the pro-life movement and the Supreme Court.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, national pro-life leader, former national spokesperson for Operation Rescue, had just completed leading two weeks of prayer vigils in Wichita during the trial of Dr. Tiller.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney condemns the shooting of Dr. George Tiller.
Our prayers are with the family and friends of Dr. Tiller. They are overwhelmed with grief, trying to understand what has happened. They are living the tragedy.
They don’t need to be subjected to the partisan crap in the MSM, the negative remarks and condemnations of Dr. Tiller by a handful of extremist pro-lifers, by some liberals’ attempts to use the doctor’s murder as some twisted, pompous, inappropriate proof of their “superiority” in supporting abortion.
George Tiller, may you rest in peace.
Additional reading:
Michelle Malkin: Notes on the murder of George Tiller
Hot Air: George Tiller murdered
Not Tucker Carlson News: KANSAS: ‘A LOT OF SHOCK’
OVER DR. TILLER MURDER
Right Voices: George Tiller, the nation’s most well known abortion doctor, was shot to death Sunday morning as he walked into church
Nice Deb: Abortion Dr. George Tiller Gunned Down, Suspect In Custody
Pat Dollard | Young Americans: “George Tiller’s Life Was Precious” – With Video
Alas, a Blog: George Tiller, 1941-2009
Gateway Pundit: LATE-TERM ABORTIONIST DR. GEORGE TILLER SHOT & KILLED …Update: Killer Captured
Becky Brindle: Shocking News – Dr. Tiller MurderedOur Bodies, Ourselves: Abortion Provider George Tiller, 67, Murdered at Church
DepressionSelfHelp.com: Thank God for Michelle Malkin
About the author
I am ready for the new battle with the Pro Abortion side after the Tiller killing.
I refuse to let anyone make Tiller out to be some kind of martyr.
I also refuse to take part in any outpouring of sympathy to his widow, family or the members of his “church” who supported him and his evil profession or who benefited personally or financially from the blood money that he earned slaughtering infants.
George Tiller was a monster. He was a disgusting and vile black hearted monster who made a life out of massacring helpless preborn infants for money.
The tragedy in George Tiller’s demise is in that the Pro Life movement, Christians and conservatives are further demonized by the Pro Abortion leftists and most of the media by a rogue and unstable gunman who took what he felt was justice into his own hands by taking Tiller out.
George Tiller claimed to have personally ended the lives of sixty thousand preborn children. His absence from this world will not bring a tear to my eye.
Bottom line; Tiller was a killer. You live by the “sword” you die by the “sword.”
I have no sympathy for money grubbing doctors acting like they are doing something good for people (women) but they are no better than a televangelist ripping off widows and orphans for their last cent!
“Pro choice/death” people are such hypocrites – never seeing the forest because of the tree of their selfishness. Never shedding a tear for the children torn to shreds by this man’s seared conscience.