Advertisement

Web post on Tiller may be suspect’s

Share
Associated Press

Someone using the same name as the suspect in Dr. George Tiller’s slaying has expressed antiabortion opinions on sympathetic websites.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz refused to identify the suspect, but said he was 51. Johnson County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Erickson identified the detained man as Scott Roeder, who has not been charged in Sunday’s slaying.

In 1996, someone named Scott Roeder, then 38, was charged in Topeka, Kan., with criminal use of explosives for having bomb components in his car trunk and sentenced to 24 months of probation. His conviction was overturned on appeal the next year after a higher court said evidence against him had been seized in an illegal search.

Advertisement

At the time, police said the FBI had identified Roeder as a member of the anti-government Freemen group, an organization that kept the FBI at bay in Jordan, Mont., for almost three months in 1996.

In May 2007, someone posting to the website of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue used the name “Scott Roeder” in response to a scheduled vigil to “pray for an end to George R. Tiller’s late-term abortion business.”

“Bless everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp,” the posting read. “Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the pastor, deacons, elders and members while there? Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.”

Advertisement