The Dane County Circuit Court charged a man with attempted first-degree intentional homicide on Friday after he allegedly told police officers he planned to kill abortion providers in Wisconsin.
Sixty-three year old Ralph W. Lang allegedly planned to shoot an abortion provider at a Planned Parenthood in Madison and then target an abortion clinic in Milwaukee, according to The Wisconsin State Journal.
The anti-abortion group Wisconsin for Life condemned Lang in a statement.
"The man who was apprehended, Ralph Lang, briefly volunteered in educational efforts with the Marshfield chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life about five or six years ago,” Barbara Lyons, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said. “He held no official position with the chapter and to our knowledge expressed no plans to commit a violent act. If he had done so, Wisconsin Right to Life would have immediately reported him to the authorities."
The U.S. District Court in Madison has also charged him with attempting to injure, intimidate and interfere with people providing reproductive services, a misdemeanor offense.
He was apprehended by police officers after accidentally discharging a round from his pistol in his Madison motel room.
According to a criminal complaint, when police officers asked how many people he intended to kill, Lang said he wished he “could line them up all in a row, get a machine gun, and mow them all down.”
Lang was jailed on $200,000 bail.
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