Suspect in Shooting of Abortion Doctor Held on $1-Million Bail

A woman accused of shooting a doctor outside a clinic where abortions are performed was ordered held on $1-million bail Monday by a judge who said activists may be using “terror as a political tool.”

Rachelle Renae (Shelley) Shannon is accused of wounding Dr. George Tiller in both arms Thursday outside his Women’s Health Care Services clinic. Tiller was treated at a local hospital and he returned to work less than 12 hours later.

Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Clark set bail and scheduled Sept. 7 as the tentative preliminary hearing date for Shannon, 37, of Grants Pass, Ore.

The judge caught reporters off guard by moving Monday’s hearing to another judge’s courtroom and holding it about an hour earlier than scheduled. Reporters waiting at Clark’s courtroom were told by a secretary that the hearing was already over.

Clark told KFDI radio that he was concerned about pretrial publicity and wanted to avoid large crowds of demonstrators.

He also said the weekend shooting death of an abortion doctor in Alabama could make the Wichita case more volatile.

“This is a possible indication some of these groups are using terror as a political tool,” the judge said. He refused to talk to other reporters.

Police in Mobile, Ala., said they did not know if Saturday’s killing of Dr. George Wayne Patterson was connected to robbery or another motive. Patterson was shot to death after he confronted a man breaking into his car in the city’s nightclub district.

Shannon has a connection to a man accused of killing an abortion doctor in Florida last March.

The Pensacola News Journal obtained copies of 25 letters she sent to Michael F. Griffin, the abortion opponent accused of fatally shooting Dr. David Gunn outside a Pensacola, Fla., clinic on March 10. One letter praised Griffin as a “hero of our time” in the fight against abortion.