Clinic Reopens Amid Heavy Police Presence Gay Bars Warned They May Be Target

One week after it was bombed, an abortion clinic reopened Thursday as authorities looked for evidence at a North Carolina residence and warned gay bars in the area to guard against becoming a target.

Investigators swarmed the streets around the New Woman All Women Clinic as it reopened a week after a guard was killed and a nurse seriously injured. Agents handed motorists leaflets bearing a photograph of a North Carolina man being sought as a witness in the explosion.

Clinic owner Diane Derzis said two patients showed up within minutes of the door being unlocked.

Detectives searched a second day at a Marble, N.C., mobile home that was the last known address of Eric Robert Rudolph, whom authorities say is wanted only for questioning.

A gray Nissan pickup truck registered to Rudolph was seen near the clinic after the Jan. 29 blast. Authorities want to know if the truck driver was the same man seen leaving the area in a wig.

The Army of God, the group that claimed responsibility for bombings of an abortion clinic and a gay bar in Atlanta about a year ago, has claimed it also bombed the Birmingham clinic.

Wary of the Atlanta nightclub blast, which occurred about a month after the clinic explosion there, Birmingham police have warned gay bars and gay-related service agencies to be careful.

“They’ve told them to clean up around their buildings, to make sure things aren’t just lying around,” said David White, Birmingham coordinator of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama.

Agents said they are trying to contact a man who anonymously phoned a tip line after the explosion.

“He had parked at the clinic and the nurse who was injured had parked right by his car. He saw both victims of the bombing,” FBI spokesman Richard Schott said.