OWOSSO, Mich. — A man carrying grudges against several people in town set off on a shooting spree Friday morning, authorities said, killing an abortion protester outside a school because he didn’t like that the activist carried a sign with graphic images of a fetus in front of students.
Before he was done, the gunman drove to a gravel pit and shot and killed the owner, apparently for different reasons, police said. Authorities think they stopped a third killing by catching up with him before he could pull the trigger.
“The defendant had ill will toward these three individuals — not for the same reason necessarily, but had a grudge,” said Shiawassee County prosecutor Randy Colbry.
It started about 7:20 a.m. across the street from the high school, where James Pouillon stood with a sign that pictured a chubby-cheeked baby with the word “life” on one side and an image of an aborted fetus with the word “abortion” on the other.
Harlan James Drake, 33, drove by the school Friday and gunned Pouillon down in front of horrified students and parents, Colbry said.
Students said they regularly saw Pouillon outside their high school and that he often greeted them but didn’t shout slogans or try to start up a conversation with them.
Witnesses at the school gave police the vehicle’s license-plate number and authorities traced it to Drake’s home in Owosso, officials said.
After Drake left the school, he drove 7 miles to the Fuoss Gravel Co. where he gunned down Mike Fuoss, 61, in his office, authorities said. The two men knew each other, but officials didn’t say how.
Drake returned home, where police arrested him. He was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the two deaths.
The third man Drake intended to kill lived in Owosso, authorities said.
