Latest on pro-life martyr Jim Pouillon’s murder: Shooter attempts suicide; Obama finally issues statement; What sign was Jim holding?
Read my first post on the 9/11 shooting of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon here. Click to enlarge Jim’s photo above, taken 1 month ago, showing this most dedicated activist hooked up to his necessary oxygen supply via nasal cannula.
First, the Lansing State Journal reported yesterday the shooter, Harlan James Drake (pictured right), tried to kill himself September 12…
An Owosso man accused of fatally shooting an abortion protester and business owner was hospitalized Saturday morning after an apparent suicide attempt.
Shiawassee Co. Prosecutor Randy Colbry said Harlan Drake, 33, suffered “a serious gash” after cutting his arm near the wrist at the Shiawassee Co. Jail, but he was expected to recover.
Drake was arraigned Friday afternoon on 2 charges of 1st-degree murder in the Friday morning shooting deaths of anti-abortion activist James Pouillon, 63, and gravel pit owner Mike Fuoss, 61…..
[P]olice say he intended Friday to target a 3rd victim – James Howe, an Owosso real estate agent. Police said they arrested Drake at his home before he could fulfill those plans….
Police said little about what might have led Drake – a truck driver who mostly lived on the road in his cab and had family in the area – to kill, other than that he had a grudge against Fuoss and Howe and didn’t like Pouillon’s graphic anti-abortion signs….
Next, Missionaries to the Preborn reports, “[I]f you’d like to send a card, letter, or gift to Jim Pouillon’s family, you can do so through the following address which was where the family attends church:
Family of Jim Pouillon
c/o Abba’s House
P.O. Box 201
Owosso, MI 48867
These services have been posted, according to the Detroit Free Press:
A memorial service for Pouillon is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Owosso High’s Wilman Field.
Visitation for Fuoss is to be held from 2 to 8 p.m. today [Monday] at Nelson-House Funeral Home, 120 E. Mason St., Owosso.
Adds WLNS.com:
The Owosso school district has agreed to allow a public memorial service at its football stadium Wednesday for a man who was killed while protesting abortion near the high school.
The district says it’s a sign of compassion, not an endorsement of James Pouillon’s abortion stance….
Rick Mowen says his funeral home is too small for the hundreds of people who could attend Pouillon’s memorial….
Pouillon’s family is holding a private service Monday followed by cremation.
Over the weekend Monica Miller and Citizens for a Pro-life Society held a memorial that several news outlets reported over 200 attended.
Third, there have been conflicting reports whether Jim was holding a graphic sign at the time of his death or not. In my mind it doesn’t matter, but MTTP reports:
[A]s way of clarification, the sign Jim had held when he was shot had the picture of my son Jeremiah on one side and a picture of murdered preborn child on the other. We do not know for sure which side was being displayed when he was shot.
Pouillon was shot through his sign. The caption on the Associated Press photo below reads, “Owosso Police Dept. Det. Sgt. Thomas Holcomb adjusts bullet trajectory posts in a sign which belonged to anti-abortion activist Jim Pouillon….”
I’m no CSI, but it does appear that the graphic side was facing out at the time Pouillon was shot, if the detective is aiming posts in the direction of the shooting.
Finally, apparently due to persistent prodding by CBN’s David Brody, President Obama released a statement condemning the murder of Pouillon 48 hours after the fact. By comparison, Obama needed no urging to release a statement condemning the death of George Tiller within hours. Read both here.
[HT for Drake suicide attempt: LifeNews.com; photo of memorial via argus-press.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I wonder if the delayed response is because of Obama’s pro-abortion bias, or if he’s trying to cut back on the number of statements he’s issuing.
With the whole Crowley/Gates story, he was criticized for butting in on something that isn’t really his business, and that became the whole “let’s have a beer” thing, and that just became a joke.
Chris, I don’t see any evidence of Obama cutting back on issuing statements, do you? He staged a pep rally over the weekend, and I think he has a speech again tonight on radio or TV. There are so many, it’s hard to keep up.
check out the comments after this story, feminists and so-called family members of the murdered man flaming him
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/13/202351/041
poor-choicers are SO classy-NOT
Chris, it is so obviously a matter of bias that it’s ridiculous to claim otherwise. You’d have to be willfully blind not to see it.
Why didn’t Obama mention what “political issue” Joe Poillion represented when he finally decided to make his statement? Why was his statement so vague, when he had been so specific with Tiller’s, painting all pro-lifers with the same brush as Scott Roeder, even though pro-life organizations and people everywhere condemned Scott’s act of violence (something that liberals have yet to really do with what happened to Joe Poillon)? Why did Obama not condemn “pro-choicers” for acting in violence, as he condemned pro-lifers when he spoke against Tiller’s murder? Why did Obama not seem interested in an investigation, as he was with Tiller’s death?
Oh WOW…that image of the cute cuddly baby is so gory and terrible! …how awful of anyone to be holding a sign like that in front of a school with children! How awful!
I’m just so sad for Joe Poillon’s family, and especially his granddaughter who was in school when he was shot. No one deserves to die for simply holding a sign and trying to save lives by changing hearts – and who is heartless enough to kill someone sitting in a chair with an oxygen tank?
I just don’t get it. And pro-abortionists everywhere are claiming he had it coming to him. It’s just sick.
One story I read was all about the 16 year old boy who was driving to school and saw Jim getting murdered; this boy was the first on the scene to try to help him.
Since the killer’s alleged intent was to keep high school students from having to witness pictures of baby-murder, how does it make sense that, instead, some of these same children witnessed a murder happening right in front of them? “Ironic” isn’t the right word, but maybe “pathetic” or “deranged” is.
Corrina, that is a great point.
I’m no CSI either, but it seems more likely that your son’s baby picture was on the outside, not the graphic picture when Jim Pouillon was murdered. (Otherwise, the shooter would have had to move his hand much further between shots and have been crouching down oddly for one of them).
Jim is no doubt with the Lord now and so much as it pains me to say it, and much as his family of course needs our prayers, Mr. Drake is the one perched on the very precipice of hell. If it is what Jesus said it is, we literally would not wish it on our worst enemy.
Ultraguy,
That thought occurred to me, as well. the trajectory on the living baby side seems far more like it came from the same person than the trajectory from the dead baby side.
I notice there’s no “shock” and “outrage” from the president over this shooting. Well, maybe we should take it as a compliment. Apparently, the thought of a pro-lifer killing an abortionist is shocking and outrageous, but it’s not such a shock to believe that a pc-er could shoot a pl-er. The president is betraying his side. ;)
Of course, he also clarified for us that while shooting abortion doctors is heinous violence, shooting a pro-lifer is just violence.
Ick.
My heart and prayers go out to the Pouillon family. Thank You Jim!
Odd, isn’t it? Proaborts are fine with the young high school girls getting abortions without telling their parents, but think it’s outrageous to show them what abortion will do to their babies. “No information for you today!”
Not to worry, Barry is going to send out the federal marshals to protect us on the protest line… uh huh…..
Obama makes me so mad. George Tiller KILLED BABIES and Obama makes an unprompted statement within hours, Jim Pouillon held up a sign and Obama either doesn’t want to or doesn’t think to issue a statement until two days later, after someone bugs him about it. Two whole days. It’s just – unacceptable isn’t a strong enough word.
And, unlike suspected killer of George Tiller (Scott Roeder), the guy probably is a mental case.
What? “unlike” Scott Roeder? Scott Roeder is a schizophrenic.
Alleged killer Harlan Wade wasn’t politically motivated in his actions.
How so? The police said that he was ‘offended’ by Pouillon’s anti-abortion messages.
The murder of George Tiller was murder, but it wasn’t domestic terrorism. Terrorism would imply an organized, group effort to spread tyranny through fear. What happened to George Tiller is awful- I couldn’t express it enough- but it wasn’t terrorism. And defining it as such is only going to slant the lines between terrorism and other acts.
Furthermore, Harlan Drake confessed to the murders and stated that it was his pro-life activism that bothered him.
No matter how long it took him, I am really happy that Obama did make a statement. He didn’t have to.
Jim,
Scott Roeder was a paranoid, anarchistic schizophrenic. Explain to me how that isn’t a case for mental illness.
Additionally, as stated by other posters, Harlan Drake has admitted to his motivation for murder in this instance being that he was “offended” by Mr. Pouillon’s pro-life activism. This information comes from his statement to the Shiawassee Police Department.
Get your facts straight before you try to blow a smoke screen on this site. You’ll find that most of the regular commenters on Jill’s blog know what they’re talking about.
I’d hoped that you’d be perfectly willing to put the victim bashing and conspiracy theories to rest, Mr. Aroyo, and understand that the reality of the situation is not quite so espionage as you’d like it to be because it suits the victim complex that the entire pro-choice movement has (for some reason that I really can’t comprehend).
In reality, what one pro-choicer does is his own responsibility; it’s not your fault that this man was murdered nor should it be held against the entire movement. And furthermore, what one pro-lifer does is his own doing, not all of ours. Your trying to turn this into terrorism is nothing more than fear-mongering and intellectual dishonesty and I guarantee you that not only does most of the world disagree with you but you would draw the ire of families who have really lost loved ones to actual terrorism. We don’t have to turn this into something that it’s not. We can sort this out rationally.
And any sane person would not call either homicide an act of terrorism, just two sides of a heated debate that need to get under control again. We can sort this out peacefully, not just the duty of deciding what to call these tragedies, but abortion in general, but really, if we’re going to do that we need more than, “I’m right and you’re wrong and I’m not going to hear it so if you try….well…la la la la.”
You have to at least hear what we’re trying to say, not tune us out because you disagree.
The banner at the top of the Daily KOS blog looks like something out of NAZI Germany or the Goulag.
These are very sick people.
Lol they’re two different issues. He’s was schizophrenic and he was highly anti-gov and paranoid.
But since you’re going down that road, have a lovely evening with your useless ad hominem attacks. I’m going to go enjoy the pleasure of my husband’s company.
Have a nice night, Vannah :)
Well what do you expect a community organizer to do other than give speeches?
What you expect Obama to lead? Forget it. A person without principles cannot lead, he can only spew BS.
Mr. Aroyo:
Be a real macho man and stop picking on the ladies.
The pro-lifer’s murderer was a whacko.
Phil, it’s just amazing how many of you “online psychiatrists” there are when something like this happens. Do you really expect to lessen the impact of this killing by typing in the word “whacko”? Let me guess, you’ll say that Tiller’s killer was perfectly sane, but just an “evil prolifer”, right?
Wow…. Jim Jones had his Jonestown, and now the entire United States has turned into “Obamatown”. Just drink the Kool-Aid, Phil.
Both Roeder and Drake went too far.
The violence of abortion begets violence all around. Where does the violence begin? When a man and woman have sexual intercourse purely for pleasure without wanting or accepting the outcome of a child.
Please tell me those who recklessly engage in sexual intercourse consider procreating then decapitating their own child, like the photo Jim’s holding.
So the violence starts much earlier, and death is merely the fruit of that deep seed of sin.
Obama mentioned Tiller by name but not Jim! THAT says “bias” to me.
If Jim knew Jesus as Saviour then he is standing with all those souls that were aborted. No doubt in my mind that they ran to him in heaven to thank him for his stand.
I hope those homicide detectives took a good look at that sign and asked themselves how ripping the head off a baby in the womb can be legal.
Jim, are you telling me that you don’t think at all that possibly Drake was trying to silence the movement by killing one of us? You think that my husband doesn’t want me going out and protesting because someone might bring me flowers, or because they might shoot me dead as they did this poor man? Just goes to show that one can never have too much education. Don’t be ignorant.
Speaking of ignorance…”Christian theocrats…”? EXCUSE ME?!
I get SO. FREAKING. SICK. of saying this, but I AM AN ATHEIST, YOU FREAKING IDIOT. You’ll find that the beliefs of pro-lifers run the gamut of any and all types of people you can imagine. Thinking that human rights should extend to ALL humans is not exclusive to religious people.
Aaaaaand, back to the original topic:
2 days? And all he said was, “This is bad.”
No shock, no outrage, no names mentioned, at best a vague reference to the underlying issue at hand in a statement that can be uttered in a single breath…
Obama’s position is quite clear, and I don’t think I need to elaborate further. He’s a despicable man, to say the least.
Come on Jim,
You’re splitting hairs here. Roeder’s action is “domestic terrorism”, Drake is simply a “nutjob”. You PC people are a hoot.
Live with it my friend, murderous “nutjobs” exist on both sides of this issue and now your side has its own. However, unlike the PC side, PL people are not going to blather hysterically about “rhetoric” and “conspiracies” or make baseless accusations.
You know for certain Drake is a “mental case”.. how?
You know for certain he had no “political” motivations… how?
Your criteria for Roeder being “sane” is…what?
Roeder was “sane” enough to know he was shooting Tiller and why? Drake had no clue why he was shooting Pouillon?
Allow me to confuse you with some inconvenient facts Jim. Roeder did not belong to any PL group. Roeder was a member of the militias. He had a history of violent and anti social behavior and considered himself above the laws of this country.
He had threatened the lives of judges and lawyers and was caught with the equipment needed to assemble explosives.
This is your idea of a sane, rational man?
Is it possible he also killed other people unrelated to Tiller?
Gee Jim,
Do you think Drake might have known the impact killing Pouillon might have on other PL demonstrators?
Oh and Jim, exactly who are the people in the PL movement you hold responsible, names please, and tell me the contract they had with Roeder and how they influenced him.
Jim,
Thank you. I’m glad we can all acknowledge that you are only speculating and making assumptions concerning Drake’s mental state and motivations.
For that matter you are likely only speculating that certain PL people are somehow “responsible” for shootings. As you’ve noticed, the PL side does not engage in hysterical blatherings and baseless accusations when a “nutjob” kills one of ours.
Contraception is available, whatever anyone thinks of it, so what’s the issue? If people want to oppose it for religious or any other grounds, its their right.
“…that people oppose abortion but they also oppose contraception and birth control.”
Thanks for using vague generalities to try and characterize the entire pro-life movement in order to attempt to discredit us. Really.
Citing access to birth control as a precedent to right to privacy in order to justify the killing of one’s children is flimsy at best. And Roe V. Wade should be upheld why, exactly?
Jim,
Roeder posted a couple of benign posts on OR’s website. He had Cheryl Sullenger’s phone number.
This is proof positive of what? If a co-worker who is embezzling from your employer has your phone number, does that mean you influenced him to commit the crime? Hardly. Also, don’t you think police would check out any and every possible connection and Cheryl would be charged if in fact they had any reason to suspect she was involved?
I never heard of “Defensive Action” until now. My question is what proof of any exists that there is a connection between those who support killing abortionists and those who have done it.
Also, there are people who advocate any number of things, much of which society cannot condone. It doesn’t mean they are personally responsible when they happen.
Jim 10:06am
I don’t agree. Senseless murder is senseless murder. Its no worse or better when one side or the other does it. Its equally deserving of condemnation.
Posted by: Jim Aroyo at September 15, 2009 9:41 AM
…”Dr. Tiller was targeted for years. He was shot previously. His death fits into the definition of domestic terrorism albeit not to the same degree as Tim McVeigh.”
—————————————————–
From the news accounts I have read it seems that Harlan Wade was not playing with a full deck. Wade had some pre-existing ‘issues’. I have read of no evidence that Wade was anything but a catastrophe waiting to happen. He is also the proverbial lone gunman.
Tillers death was also the result of a random act of violence by a man who had been previously diagnosed as paranoid/schizophrenic. There was/is no evidence of a conspiracy. No grassy knoll. No magice bullet.
On the other hand, mr. Tiller’s business was methodical planned co-ordinated acts of violence, involving not only himself and his subordinates, but also law enforement officers, judges, governors and elected state and federal representatives.
mr. Tiller was a serial killer and a mass murderer and he did not act alone.
Which act(s) of violence more closely fits the definitions of collusion and conspiracty?
yor bro ken
From Jill’s post- {check out the comments after this story, feminists and so-called family members of the murdered man flaming him}
This video shows other members of Pouillon’s family defending him and describing his character in stark opposition to that in the description given by “Dr. Pouillon”
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7013073
In the words of James M. Pouillon’s eldest son:
It will be impossible for some to believe, but my dad really didn’t care about aborton.
He did this to stalk, harass, terrorize, scream at, threaten, frighten, and verbally abuse women. He had a pathologic hatred of women: his mom, my mom, everyone.
After my mom finally left him and he lost his favorite punching bag the violence and abuse that was always contained within our 4 walls was unleased on the people of Owosso.
My dad used the pro-life movement and 1st Amendments foundations to defend him, support him, and enable him. He fooled them all.
He was at the high shool because my niece was there, and female family members were always his favorite targets.
Again, my dad didn’t care about abortion. He wanted to hurt people, upset people. He enjoyed making people suffer.
His goal was to be shot on a sidewalk. His goal was to make someone so angry, to make them feel so terrorized, to make them feel the only way they could make him stop was to kill him.
His pro-life stance was the most perfect crime I personally know of. He hid behind the 1st Amendment and was allowed to stalk, terrorise, harass, be obsene, ect. These things are crimes. Offending people isn’t a crime, and having different political views isn’t a crime, but he committed several crimes over the last 20 years and got away with it.
Yes I really am his oldest son. Owosso is now rid of a mad man.
Too bad Jim’s son doesn’t seem to appreciate the great cause his father fought for and which he gave his life to help.