Man Held in Bomb Attempt on Family Planning Clinic

A member of a conservative religious congregation--prominently known for its anti-abortion campaigns--was arrested Monday after he allegedly planted a bomb at a San Diego family-planning center, police said.

Eric Everett Svelmoe, 29, of El Cajon, a member of the Santee-based Bible Missionary Fellowship, was arrested shortly after he left the Family Planning Associates Medical Group at 6495 Alvarado Road, Sgt. Jim Wallace said.

Police found a pipe bomb taped to a two-gallon can of gasoline under a stairway at the medical office, Wallace said.

As a result of intelligence received during the course of other investigations, police had been maintaining a five-day surveillance of the center, said Sgt. Bill Campbell, a member of the San Diego Police Department’s intelligence unit.

Officers on the stakeout reported that they watched a man turn off the headlights of a pickup truck as he pulled into the family-planning center’s driveway about 3 a.m. They said the man walked rapidly to the stairway and apparently attached a bomb beneath it, then returned to the truck and drove off. The officers gave pursuit.

Wearing a Wig

When Svelmoe was stopped and arrested--with the assistance of El Cajon police--he was wearing a wig and his face was darkened with camouflage makeup, Wallace said. He added that police recovered a .357 magnum revolver and ammunition from the truck.

The bomb was defused by the emergency ordnance disposal unit of the San Diego Fire Department, Wallace added.

Svelmoe was arraigned before a federal magistrate Monday afternoon and is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on charges of possessing, receiving and constructing an unregistered explosive device and carrying a firearm during the commission of a felony--all federal offenses.

Svelmoe is employed as an airplane mechanic at Gillespie Field in El Cajon. He was convicted in 1985 of violating restraining orders against picketing outside Womencare, a Hillcrest feminist center that provided abortion counseling. He was also investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration for flying a plane that trailed a banner displaying a derogatory message during the Gay Pride Parade in June, 1985.

A Family Planning Associates employee who asked not to be identified said: “We have anti-abortion pickets here quite often, about three times a week. Sometimes tempers do flare but usually they’re pretty orderly. As of now we have no reason to believe the bomb threat was related to them.”