Activists Surround Clinic Where Doctor Was Shot : Abortion: Human wall clears the way for arriving patients while demonstrators on both sides trade shouts.

Even before the sun rose Saturday, some 50 demonstrators gathered at the abortion clinic of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot in both arms while leaving work Thursday.

As taxis and cars deposited patients at the back door of the Women’s Health Care Services clinic, abortion-rights demonstrators in yellow bibs formed a human wall, waved their arms and shouted, “Clear the way.”

Anti-abortion activists edged toward the driveway and, sometimes using a megaphone, begged the women to consider adoption; others held rosaries and bent their heads in silent prayer.

Linda Stoner, a 37-year-old housewife and abortion-rights advocate, surveyed the crowd and sighed. “People used to think of Wichita as something out of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” she said. “Now we’re connected with abortion and shootings. Middle America isn’t what it used to be.”

Tiller’s shooting again put Wichita, a prime target for Operation Rescue in 1991, in the national spotlight. And some demonstrators said Saturday that the city of 350,000 has not seen the end of the violence.

“I will not be surprised if it continues,” said Donna Lippoldt, director of an anti-abortion group called Sidewalk Counselors. “There’s a lot of frustration out there. . . . What do they expect?”

“We said long before the shooting started that as peaceful means of demonstrations are stamped out by the government, there would be violence,” said Denise Billings, a leader of Godarchy Productions, one of the most vocal anti-abortion groups in Wichita.

As the morning wore on, patience wore thin. Demonstrators stood nose-to-nose and shouted at each other while off-duty police officers watched warily from the side.

A man in a hot pink T-shirt stood under a tree reciting Bible verses. Attempting to drown him out, Cathy Ervin, a 32-year-old trial attorney, belted out a medley of tunes that included “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” “Aquarius” and “Oklahoma.”

“Emotions are running high,” Ervin said. “The shooting has really stirred people up.”

Rachelle Ranae Shannon, the woman charged with shooting Tiller, was reported Saturday to have sent at least two dozen fan letters to Michael Griffin, accused of killing Dr. David Gunn outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic in March.

“I know you did the right thing. It was not murder,” Shannon wrote to Griffin, who is in jail awaiting trial. “I believe in you and what you did.”

Parts of the letters were published by the Pensacola News Journal.

Shannon has been charged with attempted murder and was being held without bail. A court appearance is scheduled for Monday.