In brief: Man charged in clinic fire bombing

Pensacola, Fla. – Authorities say a homeless man charged Thursday with setting a New Year’s Day fire that gutted a family planning clinic told investigators he acted out of a strong disbelief in abortion and was also fueled by seeing a young woman enter the clinic while he looked on recently with protesters.

Bobby Joe Rogers, 41, was charged with one count of damaging a building by fire or explosive and was being held Thursday at the Escambia County Jail. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In an affidavit, prosecutors say Rogers told investigators he went to the Pensacola clinic of American Family Planning around midnight on New Year’s Eve with a fire bomb he had crafted from a 32-ounce beer bottle and gasoline with a wick made from an old shirt.

The two-story Pensacola clinic that was gutted by flames has been attacked before. It was bombed on Christmas Day in 1984, and in 1994 a doctor and a volunteer who escorted patients to and from the clinic were shot to death as they arrived. The gunman, Paul Hill, was executed in 2003.

Pensacola was the site of other abortion-related violence in 1993 when Dr. David Gunn was shot and killed at another clinic by an abortion protester.

One officer dead after Utah shooting

Ogden, Utah – The Utah law enforcement community mourned the death of one of their own Thursday as authorities tried to piece together the details of a shooting during a drug raid that left five other officers and the suspect wounded.

As state and national flags were ordered lowered to honor the dead and wounded officers, top officials from the Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force met reporters. The strike force, composed of local police agencies as well as county and federal officers, conducted the raid Wednesday night that led to the death of Ogden Officer Jared Francom, a seven-year veteran, survived by his wife and two children.

The five other officers remained hospitalized in serious to critical condition, police said. “It’s a very, very sad day for Ogden,” Ogden Police Chief Wayne Tarwater said.

The suspect, Matthew David Stewart, 37, was in the hospital with non-life- threatening injuries, authorities said. Stewart, an Army veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have been self-medicating with marijuana, according to his estranged father.