Abortion Clinic Suspect’s Kin Apologize for Not Giving Help

The father of the man charged with killing two abortion clinic receptionists said his son had been tormented for some time and expressed regret that he and his wife had not sought mental treatment for him.

“If we had gotten him help, maybe this terrible tragedy might not have happened,” John C. Salvi II said Friday. It was his first public comment since the shootings a month ago.

John C. Salvi III, a 22-year-old student hairdresser, is accused of rifle assaults on two suburban Boston abortion clinics on Dec. 30. Receptionists Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols were killed in the gunfire, and five other people were wounded. He has pleaded not guilty.

At a news conference at his lawyer’s office, the elder Salvi appeared deeply distraught.

“John has been obsessed with his Catholic faith and has had delusions about conspiracies against Catholics, the end of the world, the need for currency printed by the church and the presence of an anti-Christ among us,” Salvi said.

“We took his silence and recent behavior as an improvement over things that have happened in the past,” the father said. “We know now how wrong we were.”