Global Courant 2023-05-31 21:26:19
Baltimore police tell Fox News Digital they are investigating a reported attack in which two pro-life activists were allegedly assaulted outside a Planned Parenthood clinic by an unknown suspect who apparently opposed their stance on abortion.
The victims outside the North Howard Street facility on Friday were identified by LifeSiteNews as Mark Crosby and Dick Schaefer.
“One of our volunteers, Mark Crosby, was brutally beaten on May 26, 2023, while praying for Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City,” Jay Walton, the president of the Baltimore County Right to Life Chapter, wrote on a GoFundMe. -page. “Mark is currently being treated in hospital for the serious injuries he sustained.”
“For years, Mark has prayed for Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City to let the scared, young abortion-conscious women know they are loved, that their baby is loved,” Walton added.
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A Baltimore police officer said in a report that the unidentified suspect was “observed about to turn away” before rushing up to an 80-year-old pro-life activist outside this Planned Parenthood clinic and tackling him “over a large flowerpot”. (Google Maps)
Images posted to Walton’s Facebook page reportedly showed Crosby, wearing a shirt reading “Pro Life”, with swelling above his eye and blood on his face after the attack.
In a redacted police report, a Baltimore police officer said one of the victims, who is 73, told investigators he was standing outside the Planned Parenthood clinic Friday morning “in support of pro-life ideals when an unidentified (white male) attacked another member of the same beliefs as (him).”
The person “stated that he immediately went to help and was punched by the suspect and fell to the ground where he was punched in the face,” the report said.
Police say the other victim, who is 80 and suffered a cut to his hand, “reported that the suspect had approached volunteer members of Planned Parenthood and talked to them before drawing attention to him.
That victim said that “the suspect spoke to him in an aggressive manner, opposed (his) pro-life ideals and tackled him into a large flowerpot without warning,” the report continued.
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The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland told WBAL it is “unfortunate that an incident occurred outside of our health center.” (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
It also noted that several witnesses saw the attack happen, with one of them telling investigators that the “conversation between the suspect and the (80-year-old victim) was a debate about their ideas about pro-life and pro-choice positions. ”
Video footage viewed by the officer showed the suspect punching the 73-year-old victim on the head as he lay on the ground, before kicking him in the face with “extreme force”, the report added.
The suspect was last seen on security cameras a few blocks away, according to police, and is described as wearing a “gray T-shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes with brown hair and a full beard.”
The 73-year-old victim “was diagnosed with a large hematoma, hyphemia and headache and neck pain, but (is) in stable condition,” police also said.
Walton and Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that police are investigating the incident, which authorities described as a “reported assault.” (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Police)
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In a statement to WBAL, Karen Nelson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, said the organization “does not condone violence of any kind, and I am sorry that an incident occurred outside of our health center.
“It’s a damn shame that people trying to get health care have to put up with comments and remarks when they’re just trying to get into an institution and get health care,” she added.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
