President Obama Condemns 'Deplorable' Murder of Michigan Pro-Lifer

'Whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer,' the president added.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSite News) - President Obama issued a brief statement Sunday calling the Friday murder of Michigan pro-life veteran Jim Pouillon "deplorable."

"Whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer," the president added.

Prosecutors have stated that the accused murderer, Harlan James Drake, 33, told them that he singled out 63-year-old Jim Pouillon of Owosso because there was "some displeasure with how open he was" in displaying his pro-life message.

Pouillon, who has been protesting abortion for about twenty years, was accustomed to displaying images of unborn children killed by abortion.

Witnesses say that Pouillon was shot multiple times by someone in a moving vehicle as he stood outside Owosso High School at 7:20 a.m. Friday morning.

Drake, taken into custody Friday after the vehicle's license plate led police to his home, is back in jail Monday after being hospitalized for an apparent suicide attempt Saturday.

Local news station NBC 25 reported last week that prosecutors have contacted federal authorities to determine whether Pouillon's murder could be prosecuted as a hate crime.

In an interview with the New York Times, Center for Reproductive Rights spokeswoman Laura MacCleery dismissed the shooting's ties to the abortion debate because Drake also killed a second man that morning, gravel company owner Mike Fuoss, for a separate reason.

MacCleery said the murder was "not something any group on either side of this debate would ever contemplate condoning."

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