The abortion clinic where a gunman opened fire has attracted protests and scattered violence to its ordinary office building for more than 21 years.
The Hillcrest Clinic opened nine months after the Supreme Court legalized abortions in 1973. Protesters showed up almost immediately and still pace the sidewalk in front at least once a week.Workers have complained that pro-life activists have tried to intimidate them. At times, confrontations between the two sides have escalated to violence.
John C. Salvi III, 22, was arrested Saturday for spraying 20 shots from a rifle into the building. He also is suspected of killing two people and wounding five in shootings Friday at two suburban Boston abortion clinics.
At Hillcrest, arson caused more than $100,000 damage to the clinic in 1983. A year later, two of seven pipe bombs planted inside the clinic exploded, causing minor damage.
Nobody was hurt in the three attacks at Hillcrest. The arson and pipe bomb attacks resulted in criminal convictions.
Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority in Washington, said she believes Salvi was drawn to the area because of its strong pro-life stand. The region is home to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, one of the area's best known abortion opponents.
"We believe there is a loose network out there pursuing a murder strategy," Smeal said. "Why would a man have shot and killed people in Massachusetts, get in a car, travel to Norfolk, Va., and just happen to pick out a clinic that has been heavily targeted by people advocating justifiable homicide?"
Protesters at Hillcrest have been accused of following patients and doctors, forcing their way into the clinic and attempting to block the doors of the building. The clinic shares a lobby with a bank, a jeweler and several other businesses.
Last August, one of three Hillcrest doctors resigned, citing in part his frustration with being harassed. Federal marshals were assigned to the clinic about the same time, after two abortion doctors were killed in Pensacola, Fla.
The marshals weren't at Hillcrest on Saturday, and it was unclear if they were still assigned to the clinic.
Donald Spitz, director of Pro-Life Virginia, often protests at Hillcrest, and signed a 1993 petition that supported the use of force, even killing, to protect unborn children.
He said Salvi was not known by anyone involved in pro-life activities in the area, but Spitz would still help him if he needed it.
"In good conscience, I could not have turned him away," Spitz said. "My conscience would not allow me to turn a brother in to the authorities. It goes against everything I believe, everything that I am."