Survivor Describes Shooting at Florida Abortion Clinic

In her first interviews since a protester shotgunned an abortion doctor and his escorts arriving at a clinic Friday, the only survivor of the attack, June Barrett, recalled the horror of discovering that Dr. John Britton had been killed, then getting out of the truck to find the body of her husband, 74-year-old James Barrett.

Mrs. Barrett said she ducked to the floor and stayed there as pellets and shards of glass blew through the cab. She spoke in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show and in a later telephone interview.

“My husband died for the cause of a woman’s right to choose,” Mrs. Barrett said, promising she would return to work as an abortion clinic escort. “I’m not going to sit back in a corner and not do anything. Somebody’s got to stand.”

Mrs. Barrett, who was wounded in the forearm and breast, and her husband had served for the 17 months as escorts at The Ladies Center, volunteering after the murder of Pensacola abortion doctor David Gunn.

“I stepped over Jim. He was lying right there beside the car,” she recalled, “And I realized then my arm was hurting. I had blood running down my legs . . . . “

Police have charged well-known abortion opponent Paul Hill, 40, with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Mrs. Barrett said Hill “was just always an annoyance--yelling and screaming and carrying his posters. I did not believe he would shoot anybody.”