Clayton Lee Waagner, convicted felon and anti-abortion extremist, remains at large as Federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, ATF and FBI, continue their search. Waagner escaped in late February from the DeWitt County Jail in Clinton, IL., and has since posted on-line threats to both abortion providers and “anyone who works at an abortion location or Planned Parenthood.” Writing on anti-abortion extremist Donald Spitz’s “Army of God” Web site bulletin board, Waagner also claims to have conducted home surveillance on forty-two staff members and numerous clinics in recent weeks. He is considered “heavily armed and dangerous.”
We urge all clinic staff members to be on high alert and use extra safety precautions. Report any violent or harassing act to the law enforcement officials immediately by dialing 911.
Waagner is suspected in several robberies and has been indicted in the May 17 armed robbery of a First Union bank in Lower Paxton Township, PA, outside Harrisburg. Waagner was reported to have fled the scene with a male accomplice in a mid-1970’s Volvo station wagon with Texas license plates. In recent weeks has been seen twice outside of a Harrisburg clinic with a group of anti-abortion protesters.
Waagner had been awaiting sentencing for a federal weapons and stolen vehicle conviction when he escaped from jail. Prior to his arrest, Waagner had traveled extensively around the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and was headed to the Pacific Northwest. He told a newspaper he intended to shoot and kill abortion providers. It is now known he has also traveled across the country and back.
Trained staff members at the National Clinic Access Project are available 24 hours a day to provide assistance, resources, or to answer questions via out toll-free women’s health clinic hotline:1-877-BE-SAFE-8.
Recent photographs are available at federal law enforcement Web sites www.atf.treas.gov, www.fbi.gov, and www.usdoj.gov/marshals).
