FIREBOMB: Suspect Is Arrested : Man Held in Firebombing of Abortion Clinic

With the arrest of a suspect in the March 16 firebombing of the Birth Control Institute, relieved workers at the abortion clinic were preparing Friday afternoon to celebrate with a bottle of champagne in their freshly painted offices.

“It’s such a beautiful day,” clinic Director Carol Roberts said. “One of our staff members said, ‘Boy, I’m so excited to go to work today, now that it’s safe.’ ”

Investigators from the Fire Department’s Metro Arson Strike Team on Thursday night arrested Shane Cameron, 25, near the home he shares with his parents less than three blocks from the clinic.

Cameron is being held in County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail. He is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on three felony arson counts.

Battalion Chief Jim Sewell said Cameron, who is also a suspect in the torchings of two motorcycles in East San Diego, does not appear to be affiliated with anti-abortion activists who have picketed the Birth Control Institute for more than a year.

“We have not connected him with any anti-abortion group or any church group,” Sewell said. “We’re still working on a motive right now.”

Cameron had been a suspect since the night of the bombing, when a police officer noticed him loitering near the clinic and became suspicious of his “activity and demeanor,” Sewell said. Arson investigators are seeking at least one more suspect in the attack, in which a Molotov cocktail was thrown through one of the clinic’s windows, causing more than $10,000 in damage.

The bombing was the clinic’s second in seven months and the 33rd nationwide over the last two years. However, Sewell said Cameron is not considered a suspect in the earlier bombing.

At the time of his arrest, the unemployed gardener appeared dazed. When a television news reporter at the arrest site asked Cameron if he had bombed the clinic, the suspect answered, “No . . . yes . . . no.”

Neighbors in the 4100 block of Monroe Avenue where Cameron has lived with his parents for years said he had never been known to express an opinion on the subject of abortion, although he did have a reputation for unconventional behavior, such as accosting motorists in the street and making faces at passers-by.

The Camerons’ house caught fire Dec. 23, though arson investigators at the time determined that the blaze had been set accidentally.

Although arson investigators have yet to determine a motive in the March 16 attack, clinic director Roberts said she still believes the bomber was opposed to abortion.

“I think that may be something that comes out later,” she said. “In 99% of the bombings and arsons across the country, it has been someone with anti-abortion beliefs. It’s very difficult for me not to believe with the climate that we have now, with the arsons across the country, that it’s not related.”

However, the Rev. Dorman Owens, whose Santee-based Bible Missionary Fellowship has frequently targeted the Birth Control Institute for picketing, said that any attempt to associate anti-abortion picketers with the clinic bombing was “just a political play on words.”

“They’re trying to turn public opinion against those who are anti-abortion,” Owens said. “What they’re saying is that we don’t have a right to picket. If you’re liberal and do it, it’s freedom of speech. If you’re conservative or a Bible-believer, they connect you with arsonists.”

Even with a bombing suspect in custody, Roberts said employees at the Birth Control Institute are not ready to totally relax.

“Our security has been thoroughly revamped--it’s state-of-the-art and high-tech at this point,” she said, wondering if the arrest “might set off some other borderline personality to decide to finish the job his ‘brother’ started. That’s what we fear. We can’t allow it.”