Police spokesman Jerry Potts attempted to defend the department Monday against charges by abortion rights supporters that it had failed to enforce laws against clinic violence. He said the department offered to escort Britton after receiving complaints about protesters from The Ladies Center abortion clinic.
Britton, 69, and his escort, James H. Barrett, 74, were shot and killed as they arrived for work at the clinic Friday. Barrett's wife, June, 68, was wounded in the attack.
Paul Hill, a former Presbyterian minister, has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the shotgun slayings.
In a related development this week, a law firm funded by conservative broadcaster Pat Robertson said it will no longer represent Hill on charges that he harassed patients at a Pensacola abortion clinic six weeks before allegedly killing a physician and his escort there last Friday.
The American Center for Law and Justice, based in Virginia Beach, said it had asked to withdraw from the June 17 disorderly conduct case against Hill because it condemns the Friday shotgun murders of Britton and Barrett.
The center, whose $10 million annual budget is funded largely by contributions from viewers of the Christian Broadcasting Network and direct-mail appeals, says it "focuses on pro-life, pro-family and pro-liberty issues."
Potts said the department had been contacted by clinic director Linda Taggert in January or February "with reference to a possible stalking case by Mr. Hill." But the doctor refused an offer of an armed escort to and from the airport, he said.
Instead, The Ladies Center paid an off-duty police officer to stand guard outside the clinic on Fridays, when women came for abortions, and Hill regularly staged demonstrations.
Hill has been the subject of at least two recent investigations. On June 10, Hill allegedly screamed through a clinic window, "Abortion is murder. Mommy, please don't kill me," a Justice Department source said last night. An FBI agent was dispatched, but interviews found that Hill did not interfere with patients or clinic employees and did not trespass or issue direct threats.
The bureau contacted the police department, which later talked to the clinic's director to determine if Hill should be charged with a public nuisance offense, a misdemeanor. The director declined to file a complaint, the source said.
Seven days later, Pensacola police arrested Hill and charged him with violating a local noise ordinance after clinic staff members said patients inside were being disturbed by his chanting of anti-abortion slogans.
Hill repeatedly has advocated "justifiable homicide" against abortion clinic physicians.
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