Hero In Hiding From Abortion War
To many people Richard Seron is a life saver.
A security guard at one of two Boston abortion clinics where John Salvi opened fire nearly four years ago, Seron engaged in gunfire with the anti-abortion protestor and forced Salvi to flee.
Seron, who was awarded a symbolic life preserver after the incident, was one of four people wounded in the attack, which left two people dead.
Today, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin, Seron sees himself as a different sort of symbol.
"I believe that by stopping John Salvi's plans for mass murder," Seron said, "I probably stand as a symbol in the eyes of the most extreme factions in the pro-life movement."
His fears were confirmed when he found his name listed along with doctors and nurses who perform abortions on a Web site identifying them as foes of the right-to-life movement.
Dr. Barnett Slepian, whose name was also on that list, was killed by a sniper at his Buffalo home ten days ago. Slepian's name was crossed off on the Web site hours after he was killed.
Seron, now retired, never opens his blinds, has installed a $5,000 home security system, and wouldn't even speak to reporters until they produced identification.
"I never leave the house without a sidearm, " he said. "And I keep one right near my bed on the night table."
In the current climate, he said, anyone associated with abortions is at risk.
Slepian's death is believed linked to attacks on four other Buffalo-area doctors in the last four years. None of the other attacks was fatal.
The FBI also is investigating a hoax in which letters threatening an anthrax attack were mailed to eight abortion clinics in the Midwest Friday and Saturday.
Salvi, convicted of murder in the two Dec. 30, 1994 attacks, died of an apparent suicide in November 1996 at a Massachusetts prison where he was serving a life sentence.
Salvi was convicted of killing Lee Ann Nichols, 38, and Shanon Lowney, 25, both receptionists in women's health clinics that performed abortions. Salvi's attorney had argued that Salvi was a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered from delusions of persecution. He had asked that Salvi be declared incompetent to stand trial, but the judge declined to do so.