Bomb scare at women’s clinic closes College Avenue
Posted on Friday, February 23, 2007
A suspicious package left on the doorstep of the Fayetteville Women’s Clinic on Thursday morning forced emergency responders to shut down portions of College Avenue and summon the Springdale Bomb Squad.
About two hours later, firefighters determined the package was harmless — it actually contained a religious newsletter.
Fayetteville police responded to the women’s clinic, 1011 N. College Ave., at 8: 42 a. m.
“ The Fayetteville Police Department received a call on its non-emergency line indicating a suspicious package had been received at the women’s clinic, ” police Sgt. Shannon Gabbard said. “ The caller said the package appeared bulky and had no return address. They thought it was a letter bomb. ”
Gabbard said a patient found the package on the business’s front stoop.
“ The person who found it carried it into the business and gave it to one of the employees, ” he said. “ With the type of work done at the women’s clinic, it gave them reason to be concerned. ”
The Fayetteville Women’s Clinic is the only certified abortion clinic in Northwest Arkansas.
“ We looked at the package, but we didn’t have the technology to evaluate what was inside, ” he said. “ We didn’t know if it contained some sort of device or a chemical agent. ”
Gabbard said patients were evacuated from the clinic and members of the Springdale Bomb Squad were called to the scene.
“ There were about 16 patients in the clinic, and over half of them were evacuated, ” he said. “ The only people who stayed inside were the patients who were in the middle of receiving medical treatment and the people who were investigating the package. Everyone else was evacuated. As people came out of the building, we received information from them. ”
Police blocked off portions of College Avenue, beginning at North Street, and diverted traffic onto Maple Street. Officers also notified nearby businesses of the situation but did not order them to evacuate.
“ We gave them the option to decide whether or not they wanted to evacuate, ” Gabbard said.
Bomb squad members arrived on the scene about 20 minutes later. After performing an x-ray of the package, they determined it contained a letter.
“ It turned out to be a quarterly newsletter from some sort of religious organization, ” Gabbard said. “ It was kind of like the circulars people receive in mass mailings. ”
Gabbard said the letter came from In Touch Ministries, a church headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. According to its Web site, the church’s mission statement is “ to lead people worldwide in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and to strengthen the local church. ”
“ We haven’t been able to talk to the person who delivered the letter because we don’t know who it was, ” Gabbard said. “ It’s advisable for any business to put a return address all of its outgoing mail. ” Dr. William Harrison, the clinic operator, said he thought the letter was purposely made to look suspicious. “ We get stuff like that all the time, but they’re not dressed up like letter bombs, ” he said. “ The people who sent that letter really don’t care who it affects. I’m sure they did it on purpose. ” Cooperation among
responders Gabbard said area response agencies maintained good communication with one another during the incident. “ I’m happy we have hazardous material and bomb squads available to us, ” he said. “ That’s a nice resource to have available in this region. Firefighters, haz-mat —everyone who was on the scene maintained good communication. They all stayed in the loop continuously. ” Although the incident caused travel inconveniences along College Avenue, Gabbard said the situation could have lasted a lot longer.
“ We had to shut down some pretty major thoroughfares of College, but that time was reduced because of the Springdale Bomb Squad, ” he said. “ If we didn’t have the bomb squad, we would have had to wait for members of the Pine Bluff Arsenal to respond. ”
In addition to closing off the intersection of North Street and College, Gabbard said officers were also stationed on several side streets.
“ We had about four officers managing traffic and two stationed outside the clinic, ” he said. “ The good thing about where we shut traffic down was that there were ulterior routes. It was an inconvenience, but the traffic was easy to reroute. ”
Past incidents Although Thursday’s bomb scare turned out to be a false alarm, Harrison said it wasn’t the clinic’s first brush with violence. In interviews with local and national media, Harrison has said that his clinic was “ firebombed” in 1985. According to police and fire reports from the time, someone on July 6, 1985, tucked what appeared to be a cloth diaper soaked in gasoline underneath a window screen at the clinic and lit it. Wrapped inside was a firecracker. A neighbor who saw smoke coming from the window extinguished the fire with a bucket of water. Estimated damage from the blaze and resulting smoke was about $ 500, according to police records. Damage, mostly from smoke, was confined to one examining room. “ Unfortunately that incident made us uninsurable, ” Harrison said Thursday afternoon. “ We couldn’t get a policy for fire or theft for several years. When we did get one, it increased our cost by several thousand dollars. ”
The incident happened in the wake of protests at the clinic by the Unborn Child Amendment Committee in Washington County, but the group’s organizers denied any involvement in the blaze. The local chapter of the National Organization for Women called for a special investigation.
“ The boy who did it was 14, ” Harrison said. “ His family moved to Indiana immediately after the incident. A year later, he confessed the whole thing and his family brought him back here. I admired them for doing that. ”
Police arrested the teenager on charges related to the arson. The teen told police he had strong views that abortion was wrong and decided to act.
“ He had seen ‘ Silent Scream’ at (University Baptist Church ) under H. D. McCarty, ” Harrison said. “ Apparently, it caused him to act out. ”
Information about what happened with the young man could not be obtained Thursday. Juvenile criminal records are not generally open to public inspection.
“ The prosecuting attorney at that time brought him in and asked me what I wanted to do, ” Harrison said. “ I talked to the boy and his parents for a long time. They paid a little restitution, but not nearly what it cost us. I admired the parents for doing that. ”
Harrison said the clinic had another bomb scare around 1987.
“ We know what letter bombs typically look like, ” he said. “ When we get a letter like that, if I’m not pretty confident of what the letter contains, I call police. The last time we had a scare, the state police and the fire marshal came and took the letter to an open field, where they x-rayed it and opened it. They didn’t have to stop traffic like they did this morning. ”
Effect on area Douglas Ledbetter, an employee at Passages Center for Harmony, 930 N. College Ave., said the incident Thursday caused him to be an hour late for work.
“ I was supposed to unlock the store at 9: 30 a. m., but all the roads were blocked and I couldn’t get here, ” he said. “ I drove around for about half an hour. Finally, I parked several blocks away and had to walk. No one would tell me what was going on. ”
John Parks, a residential sales manager for Ozark Floors, 928 N. College Ave., said business was halted while streets were closed.
“ We usually open at about 7: 30 a. m., ” he said. “ We were empty for about two or three hours. We didn’t know what was going on. Normally we’re pretty busy during the morning. ”
Harrison said he felt bad about the inconvenience.
“ I’m sorry that it shut down the street and I’m sorry that it shut down my neighbors’ businesses for a while, ” he said. “(Emergency responders ) did their job, but I just wished they would have taken it somewhere else. ”
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