A Pro-Life activist from Michigan has been shot and killed. Initial reports say the man is James Pouillon who is known as the "abortion sign guy". Apparently he was well known in the community for holding up abortion signs with pictures of aborted babies. There have actually been two people killed and it looks like the murders are related. If this was done because of Pouillon's views on abortion,.will the President of the United States issue any sort of statement on this just like he did when abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered? The pro-life community waits to see what he does.
The Brody File has more info on Pouillon below but first get up to speed on the story by reading below from the Owosso Michigan Newspaper:
Two men were shot and killed this morning - one across the street from Owosso High School where students were getting off buses - and the other at Fuoss Gravel in Owosso Township.
“We have two murders. We believe they are related and we have a suspect in custody,” Shiawassee County Sheriff George Braidwood said. “We're only a couple of hours into this so it's going to take some time for all of the details to come through.”
Witnesses on the scene identified the man who was shot near OHS as long-time abortion protester Jim Pouillon.
Police had not identified the second victim by press time, however, Jack Swarthout, who lives on Busha Road, across the street from Fouss Gravel in Owosso Township, said the victim in the second killing was Mike Fouss.
Swarthout said he confirmed Fouss was shot in his office by talking with Fouss' relatives. He added he witnessed a suspicious vehicle driving away from the business around 6 a.m.
“The car was coming from Mike's,” Swarthout said. “I assumed it was Mike but it didn't look like his car. It was too foggy to see much of anything. ... Then the car backed up and sped off.”
Owosso Public Safety Director Mike Compeau said the man in custody is a male, but would not confirm whether the man shot in front of the high school was Pouillon. He said the Owosso Police Department is working with the Sherriff's Office and Michigan State Police and will provide more information soon.
James Pouillon has been arrested before because of his pro-life protests. The Brody File has found a court affadavit back from 2000 where you can read more about him.
James L. Pouillon was arrested by Owosso, Michigan city police while protesting on public property against abortion. The arrest was ostensibly for "refusing a lawful police order" to move, and "obstructing passage to a public building." Pouillon sued the City of Owosso and two of its police officers, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for violating his clearly established constitutional rights to freedom of speech, religion, and assembly by arresting him for protesting abortion while standing with a sign in front of city hall. The district court denied his motion for summary judgment and, after a jury found against him, his renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. He appeals these rulings, and also contends that the district court committed reversible error in submitting to the jury the issue of defendants' qualified immunity, rather than submitting special interrogatories on the basis of which the court would then decide the question of whether the defendants' actions were qualifiedly immune. He also appeals the district court's dismissal sua sponte of his claim for punitive damages. The district court submitted the case to a jury under instructions that misstated and conflated the principles of qualified immunity, First Amendment rights, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. We therefore remand this case for further proceedings under the appropriate standards, as set forth in this opinion.
James Pouillon is a dedicated anti-abortion protester whose non-working life is largely devoted to activism in that cause. He was a familiar figure on the streets of Owosso, where he staged abortion protests for a portion of each day almost every weekday for over ten years. On the date he was arrested, he had decided to move his protest from his customary post on the sidewalk to a position on a small plaza separating upper and lower short flights of steps to city hall, or on the steps themselves. On the sidewalk, he had often been the target of verbal abuse as well as assorted missiles, and had once been almost run down by a motorist who swerved onto the sidewalk and drove straight at him. He had also been issued a ticket on the sidewalk by Sergeant Little on an earlier occasion for violating a city ordinance banning signs in the public right-of-way. However, Sergeant Little testified that this incident involved a large, free-standing sign rather than Pouillon's usual hand-held sign, and that it was the sign, rather than Pouillon's presence, that had constituted the sidewalk obstruction and resulted in his ticket on that earlier occasion.