Suspect in Killings Seized After Attack on Virginia Clinic : Shootings: Man sought in deadly Massachusetts rampage is captured in Norfolk, minutes after police say he fired on another abortion facility. No one was hurt.

A 22-year-old student hairdresser wanted for shootings at two abortion clinics that left two people dead and five others injured was captured Saturday in Norfolk, Va., minutes after he opened fire at a building containing another clinic, officials said.

Police seized John C. Salvi III and said the license plate of his truck matched the vehicle wanted in the fatal shooting spree that took place here Friday. No one was injured in the Virginia clinic attack.

“I can confirm that the individual that was placed under arrest in Norfolk is the same individual that was being sought in connection with the shootings at the Brookline clinics,” an FBI spokesman said.

Salvi was arrested about three blocks from the Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk, officials said. The gunman, who carried a black bag, opened fire at the building from a back parking lot about 11:30 a.m., hitting the building 23 times and shooting out the lobby’s windows, police said.

FBI agent Richard Swensen, who headed the search for Salvi, told reporters that Salvi had tried to gain entry to the clinic, about 600 miles south of where Friday’s attacks occurred, and opened fire in frustration when he failed.

The clinic, on the second floor of a three-story building, was open at the time, and two guards were posted in the ground-floor lobby.

Anti-abortion protesters were gathered in front of the building at the time, clinic spokeswoman Suzette Caton told the Associated Press.

An arson investigator on the scene for an unrelated case saw the gunman open fire, police spokesman Larry Hill said.

“He heard the shots fired in the rear of the building, then observed a man with a rifle firing into the glass of the lobby,” Hill said. “He saw the man get in a pickup and leave the scene.”

The investigator called in reinforcements and chased the pickup. When police pulled the truck over, the driver tossed a .22-caliber semiautomatic weapon out a window as officers surrounded him, Hill said.

The man bolted from his truck and tried to flee, but police cornered him against the wall of a bank.

Salvi will appear before a federal magistrate in Norfolk on a charge of flight to avoid prosecution. He then will be extradited to Massachusetts, U.S. Atty. Donald Stern said in Boston.

The White House hailed Salvi’s arrest. “This is a serious issue and something that not only the President but all Americans want to see stopped,” said White House spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.

The arrest was also cheered by Planned Parenthood, the national organization that operates one of the Brookline clinics that was attacked.

“We hope that Mr. Salvi will be brought to justice as quickly as he was caught,” said Pamela Maraldo, president of Planned Parenthood, in a statement Saturday. “We as a nation must rein in this madness.”

Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld, whose stance in favor of abortion rights is at odds with many of his colleagues in the Republican Party, said: “I look forward to a thorough prosecution and punishment in this case.”

In 10 minutes of terror Friday, the gunman, dressed in black and armed with a .22-caliber rifle, entered clinics operated by Planned Parenthood and Preterm Health Services, slaying Shannon Lowney, 25, the receptionist in the first clinic, and Leanne Nichols, 38, the receptionist at the second. Five people were wounded, including a security guard who tried to stop him. The five remained hospitalized Saturday, with three of them listed in fair condition and two in serious condition.

A spokeswoman for Preterm Health Services said a decision will be made after New Year’s Day on when the clinic will reopen. Preterm canceled Saturday’s office hours and the Planned Parenthood facility was closed as scheduled Saturday. There was no word from Planned Parenthood on when its clinic will reopen.

The twin attacks brought to five the number of people slain at clinics performing abortions in the United States. Both President Clinton and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno quickly deplored the violence, labeling it domestic terrorism.

Prosecutors in Brookline issued an arrest warrant for Salvi early Saturday but said he became a suspect almost immediately after the slayings when a duffel bag dropped by the gunman Friday was found to contain important clues, including a .22-caliber Colt handgun, which was traced to a store in New Hampshire where the weapon was purchased in October, and a receipt for ammunition from a local gun shop.

The bag also contained hundreds of rounds of ammunition and detachable magazines capable of holding multiple bullets.

Federal agents said a clerk at Bob’s Tactical Shooting Range and Gun Shop in Salisbury, Mass., identified a sketch that witnesses to the shootings helped construct and confirmed that a customer fitting Salvi’s description had purchased ammunition from the shop.

State police and the FBI raided Salvi’s residence in a condominium complex at Hampton Beach, N.H., on the coast north of Boston, and collected additional evidence, officials said.

Some residents of the Beachside Inn, where the apartment is located, said Salvi had returned home briefly after the shootings, and one neighbor said he believed that Salvi had taken time to throw away his Christmas tree.

Authorities who issued the arrest warrant on two counts of first-degree murder and five counts of armed assault with attempt to murder said Salvi was traveling in a black 1987 Toyota pickup truck with license plates from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Neighbors said the truck carried anti-abortion bumper stickers and that at one point Salvi had taped a large picture of a fetus to the rear window of the vehicle until fellow employees of the hair salon where he worked and students at the beauty school where he trained persuaded him to remove the picture.

The portrait of the suspect that emerged Saturday was of a loner who was awkward with women, who recently had a fight with his parents, who disliked the daylight and who had employment difficulties.

Salvi attended beauty school in Portsmouth, N.H., and worked at the Eccentric Hair Salon in Hampton Beach, where Richard Griffin, his boss, said Saturday that Salvi is a strict Catholic and a loner with minimal social skills.

Salvi left his job two weeks ago after he got into a tug-of-war with a customer about storing the customer’s coat, Griffin said.

Even though Salvi parked his pickup in a corner of the lot outside the hair salon, Griffin said he couldn’t help but notice that he had put up a large picture of a fetus on the back window of the cab.

Griffin said that after the clinic killings, some customers had even commented that Salvi could be the gunman.

“When it first happened, some of the clients mentioned it and immediately we started joking, saying: ‘I bet it was John. We knew John would do something like this,’ and it was just a joke,” Griffin said.

The joke turned serious when the customers realized the description of the killer matched Salvi.

“He didn’t relate well to people. He didn’t talk to people,” Griffin said. “When you are in a hair salon, you have to go up and talk to people and stuff like that. He didn’t have social skills with people good enough to even maintain a common conversation. . . . He was a religious fanatic who stuck to himself.”

In Hampton Beach, a vacation community of about 3,000 winter residents just across the Massachusetts border, Salvi’s next-door neighbor, John Christo, said Salvi had occupied Unit 208 of the Beachside Inn, which rented for about $350 a month during the off-season. He said Salvi detested daylight and had moved furniture, including a large credenza, in front of the sliding glass doors of the room to block out the sun.

Neighbor Jeff Marshall, a tall 19-year-old wearing a baseball cap, said he spent a lot of time in Salvi’s room and that they talked about “what was going on in his life.”

“He got into a big fight with his father. He was angry,” Marshall said.

Christo also said that Salvi’s parents had visited at Christmas and they had argued with their son.

“Let me tell you something right now. I’m crying. This hurts,” Christo said. “. . . This guy is a mellow guy. He’s a wimp. . . . The guy is a sheltered person.”

Christo ran his fingers through his short, tousled hair and said Salvi had cut it, messing it up.

Christo said that if Salvi was the gunman, he did it because he “wants the kids to be loved. He believes that maybe some of these other children could be hugged and loved.”

Times wire services contributed to this story.