Slain Abortion Opponent 'Loved the Controversy' His Protests Generated
OWOSSO, Mich. — For at least two decades, in weather good or bad, James Pouillon would stand for hours at a time around this small, rural town, waving graphic signs and breaking the idyllic quiet with loud anti-abortion rants.
That is how most residents of Owosso, just outside Flint, said they would remember Mr. Pouillon, a retired auto worker who was shot to death on Friday morning while staging a protest here. Others, though, knew him as a good neighbor and devoted family man who loved to romp with his grandchildren in his backyard.
On the day he died, Mr. Pouillon, 63, was in front of Owosso High School doing what he did just about every day, demonstrating and carrying a placard bearing the word “Life” on one side and an image of an aborted fetus with the word “Abortion” on the other.
Mr. Pouillon’s death is believed to be the first killing of a person protesting abortion. And it even caught the attention of President Obama, who on Sunday called the shooting “deplorable” in a statement. “Whichever side of a public debate you’re on,” he said, “violence is never the right answer.”
An Owosso truck driver, Harlan J. Drake, has been charged in Mr. Pouillon’s killing and that of a local businessman, Mike Fuoss. Sara Edwards, the Shiawasee County chief assistant prosecutor, said the suspect was annoyed by Mr. Pouillon’s protests, especially when they were near schools.
Mr. Pouillon’s nephew Steven Pouillon, 39, said in a telephone interview from his home in Owosso that his uncle was a family man “who took care of his own.” He said his uncle was in good spirits when he last saw him, at a high school football game on Sept. 4.
Although he said the two of them were not particularly close, Steven Pouillon remembers hunting and fishing trips together years ago. He said that Mr. Pouillon’s divorce more than a decade ago “triggered” an increase in his protest activities.
“He got heavy into it after that,” he said.
Mr. Pouillon was a frequent diner at Greg and Lou’s, a family restaurant in Owosso. He visited at least twice a week, mostly for breakfast. And he seemed like a normal guy to Amanda Lange, a waitress there.
“He never pushed that here,” Ms. Lange said of Mr. Pouillon’s views. “He was a very nice guy. He’d always ask about my family.”
But Tony Young, president of Young Chevrolet, saw another side of Mr. Pouillon, who sometimes protested outside his dealership. The protests were because Mr. Pouillon did not like a political candidate Mr. Young supported, Mr. Young said.
“He loved the attention, he loved the controversy,” Mr. Young said, “and he knew how to get your goat.”
Longtime residents said Mr. Pouillon grew up in Owosso and kept mostly to himself. He went to work at a Flint plant.
One of those residents, Jimmy Carmody, 54 also linked Mr. Pouillon’s protests to his divorce.
“I really don’t think he hated abortion as much as he was bitter about the marriage,” Mr. Carmody said, after shopping at the Farmer’s Market. Mr. Pouillon’s former wife, Mary Lou, died in a car accident in 2001, a family member said.
Last Saturday, “the Sign Man,” as many local residents called Mr. Pouillon, was pelted with fruit by a shopper with whom he was arguing while protesting near the market. “He’d stand over there with his signs and be cussing customers out,” Mr. Carmody said. “He became just too in-your-face.”
In the last year or so, Mr. Pouillon’s protests became increasingly erratic. “You could hear him sometimes making baby noises, or screaming something about Obama,” Mr. Carmody said.
Mr. Young said that after about three years of protesting outside his dealership, Mr. Pouillon came in and offered a truce. “ ‘Tony,’ ” Mr. Young said the exchange began, “if you would just agree that I’m right on my beliefs, I’ll stop.’
“I just told him, ‘Sure, Jim, you’re right,’ ” Mr. Young said, chuckling. After that, he said, Mr. Pouillon moved on.
Mr. Young said the last time he saw Mr. Pouillon was at the football game. In addition to places like City Hall, Mr. Pouillon liked to be where he thought he could influence young people, he said.
Ms. Edwards said Mr. Pouillon had been arrested before for his activities, although not in recent years. “He knew his boundaries,” she said. “He always was on the right of way. He knew where he could stand, basically.”
From most accounts, Mr. Pouillon was not particularly religious, although he did occasionally attend St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Owosso, residents said. He was active with area anti-abortion groups. A vigil was held for him Sunday not far from where he was shot, The Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, a handful of bouquets lay at the corner where Mr. Pouillon was killed.
The clean, expansive mobile home community where he lived is in a remote area of Owosso Township surrounded by cornfields and dotted with single-family, mostly aluminum-sided homes. A dirt-bike racing complex is nearby. The home where Mr. Pouillon lived is beige with maroon shutters that have heart shapes cut out of them. The lawn is well manicured, and flags adorn the outside doors. Two of Mr. Pouillon’s five adult children, his daughter Mary Jo, 26, and his son Lance, 24, lived with him.
Gary Herald, 33, a computer programmer and Mr. Pouillon’s next-door neighbor for the last nine years, said he had thought something bad might befall Mr. Pouillon because of his protesting.
“We used to talk casually as neighbors,” Mr. Herald said, “and one time a few years ago I told him I thought his signs were gross. He just shrugged and told me those were his beliefs.”
Steven Pouillon said that his uncle was regularly threatened by residents for his anti-abortion protests, but that he never took them seriously.
“Everybody talked their smack, but my uncle was never afraid,” he said.
Mr. Pouillon frequently had visitors, Mr. Herald said, adding that he never saw any anti-abortion activity in the complex. “He was always at softball games watching his granddaughter play from his old Dodge van. He’d be there encouraging her.”
Source: New York Times
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