ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701200061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
Police evacuated businesses and blocked traffic for three hours Saturday after a suspicious package was found near the abortion clinic once targeted by anti-abortion gunman John C. Salvi III.
State bomb specialists eventually concluded that the shoebox-sized package contained nothing but old typewriter parts.
A security guard at the Bel-Aire Building discovered the package in an outdoor trash can about 7a.m. during routine rounds, said Jack Goldhorn, a spokesman for Norfolk's fire and paramedic services.
The Hillcrest Clinic is inside the building.
The find came just hours before anti-abortion activists were scheduled to picket the clinic, protesting the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision legalizing abortion.
It also came only days after two bombs damaged a building containing an abortion clinic in Atlanta. The second of those blasts injured six people.
The Hillcrest Clinic drew national attention two years ago when Salvi of Massachusetts opened fire on the clinic with a semiautomatic rifle.
No one was injured in the New Year's Eve 1994 incident. Salvi was arrested and later convicted of killing two workers at a Massachusetts clinic, which he had attacked the day before turning up in Norfolk.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB