Man Shot Anti-Abortion Protester Over 'Grudge'

Gunman also killed a gravel company owner, had a third target
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 12, 2009 8:24 AM CDT
Man Shot Anti-Abortion Protester Over 'Grudge'
A Michigan State Police officer exits the Fuoss Gravel Company offices Friday, in Owosso, Mich.    (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

James Harlan Drake, the 33-year-old trucker who shot noted anti-abortion activist James Pouillon in front of a high school yesterday, also shot a local gravel company owner, and intended to kill a third man before police arrested him. He had “a list in his head,” a police chief said. “The defendant had ill will toward these three individuals—not for the same reason, necessarily, but had a grudge.”

In Pouillon’s case, Drake apparently objected to the protester’s graphic signs, which depicted mutilated fetuses. Curiously, “it didn’t appear to be a case where Pouillon was pro-life and Drake was pro-choice,” said one detective. When police arrested Drake, he also admitted to killing gravel company owner Mike Fuoss, whose body had been found less than 15 minutes earlier. He also intended to kill a local realtor. (More abortion stories.)

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