Clinic Suspect Arraigned on Gun Charges : Courts: Man accused of killing two abortion services workers pleads innocent to federal indictment. He still faces state murder counts.

One week to the day after a gunman opened fire on two women’s health clinics, killing two and injuring five, John C. Salvi III pleaded not guilty Friday to federal weapon charges stemming from the case.

The aspiring hairdresser from Hampton Beach, N.H., spoke in a shaky voice as he told District Judge Charles B. Swatwood III that he understood his rights and the charges against him. He appeared nervous, looking and sounding younger than his 22 years.

Salvi’s arraignment reflected what U.S. Atty. Donald K. Stern termed “heroic and intense efforts” on the part of federal authorities and officials in Massachusetts and Virginia. Salvi was returned here late Thursday from Virginia, where state officials agreed to temporarily set aside charges that he fired more than 20 shots at a Norfolk abortion clinic last Saturday.

He will be arraigned Monday in Massachusetts on two murder charges and five counts of attempted murder, currently the most serious allegations facing him.

But Stern said that federal authorities were “considering all our options” about what additional charges might be lodged against the man accused of fatally wounding the receptionists at the Planned Parenthood Clinic of Greater New England and the Preterm Women’s Health Clinic, both in neighboring Brookline. The shooting spree also injured a security guard, two clinic employees and two men who had accompanied women for abortions.

Salvi faces life in prison without parole if convicted on the two murder charges in a Massachusetts court. But new federal crime statutes would permit the U.S. Justice Department to seek the death penalty.

Stern said his office was working closely with Atty. Gen. Janet Reno but that no decision had been made about federal action against Salvi.

“We have taken this step-by-step, focusing first on the investigation,” Stern said, adding that “people have been working through the night” on the case.

William Delahunt, district attorney for Norfolk County in Massachusetts, who sat beside Stern on Friday, echoed Stern’s spirit of cooperation.

“There is no race or contest here between state and federal authorities,” Delahunt said.

Salvi was arraigned Friday on a two-count federal indictment charging him with transporting a firearm across state lines with the intent to commit a felony. The “underlying felony,” according to a statement released by Stern’s office, “was to intentionally injure, intimidate and interfere with any person who has been obtaining or providing reproductive services.”

On each count, Salvi faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. A Feb. 27 trial date was set for the federal charges; Salvi will be held in state custody until then.

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His court-appointed attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., described Salvi as “very young, too young to be going through this.”

Salvi entered the courtroom flanked by four federal marshals. In contrast to his court appearance in Virginia, where he wore handcuffs and chains, Salvi looked almost collegiate in his white shirt, blue blazer and khaki trousers.

But at the 20-minute hearing, he looked drawn and stunned, occasionally staring at spectators in the crowded courtroom.