Planned Parenthood closed after someone fires shotgun at clinic doors

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Knoxville will be closed over the weekend after someone fired a shotgun at its doors.

No one was hurt. The clinic was closed and unoccupied at the time of the shooting, which occurred shortly after 6 a.m. Friday and was caught on a security camera, according to a press release from Planned Parenthood.

Knoxville Police Department spokesman Scott Erland said officers responded to the clinic on Cherry Street after the shooting. A witness reported seeing a man holding a shotgun inside a black or dark-colored four-door sedan, Erland told Knox News. The gunman had left the scene and was no longer at the clinic when officers arrived.

“Officers observed that the front glass door had been shot out, while small bullet holes were also found throughout the back of the front reception area,” Erland said.

Police are investigating and ask anyone with information to call the department’s crime hotline at 865-215-7212.

The shooting occurred on the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the legal right to abortion.

“We believe it is no coincidence that this act occurred on the Roe v. Wade anniversary,” Ashley Coffield, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said in the press release. “Planned Parenthood, along with our allies and other health care providers, have long known the violent consequences of inflammatory, hateful rhetoric.”

The Knoxville clinic is expected to reopen Monday.