Anti-abortion group founder charged in S.C. Planned Parenthood shooting
Published in Family Living
The founder of an anti-abortion group has been charged in connection with a shooting outside a Planned Parenthood in South Carolina earlier this month.
Mark Baumgartner, 56, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Nov. 14 incident, during which a man was shot during a confrontation outside the Columbia Planned Parenthood, according to local police. Baumgartner allegedly pepper sprayed and then shot the victim when the argument turned physical.
Video of the incident recorded by an onlooker shows Baumgartner in a high-visibility vest spraying something in the man’s face and running away. The other man then begins chasing Baumgartner across a parking lot and hitting him as they fall to the ground, before a third man intervenes and jumps on the victim’s back.
The second man gets free and appears to prepare to throw a punch when as a gunshot is heard. Baumgartner can then be seen holstering a handgun before the video ends.
The unidentified victim was hospitalized in unclear condition, but has since been released, police said.
After reviewing surveillance video and speaking with multiple witnesses, cops charged Baumgartner with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, as well as possession of a weapon during a violent crime. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, while the second carries a mandatory five-year sentence that can be serve concurrently or consecutively if convicted.
Baumgartner was booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on Tuesday, but released later in the day after posting $50,000 cash bond, according to local ABC affiliate WPDE. He was also ordered to stay away from the clinic and not to contact the victim.
Baumgartner is the founder and executive director of A Moment of Hope, an anti-abortion group based in Columbia. The organization primarily protests outside the Planned Parenthood clinic and offers “sidewalk counseling” to people going inside.
“No one should ever face the threat of violence because they are seeking or providing health care,” Paige Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in a statement on Tuesday following Baumgartner’s arrest. “Gun violence in all its forms is a public health epidemic that threatens the health and safety of our communities. … Our doors remain open, and they will stay that way so that patients can receive the compassionate care that they need and deserve.”
The organization said it has added extra security at the Columbia clinic.
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