Kansas City News Blog

Scott P. Roeder

​Expect a lot of coverage in the papers and TV newscasts today, tonight and tomorrow on the court hearing for Scott Roeder, the man accused of assassinating Wichita late-term abortion provider George Tiller while he was ushering church.

The Wichita Eagle's Ron Sylvester is Tweeting the crap out of the pretrial hearing so you can follow along in real time. Already on the stand today is Gary Hoepner, who was also ushering that Sunday and witnessed the shooting.

From Sylvester's Tweets of Hoepner's testimony:

"He walked over and put a gun right up next to George's head and shot it. It was a loud pop. I wasn't sure if it was a cap gun ...

"I saw George fall. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was surreal."

"It happened so fast. But he put the gun right up to his head."

There'll be a lot more as the day goes on.

Also, The Kansas City Star ran excerpts from letters that Roeder wrote to his son, Nicholas, which explain why he's still a good dad even though he's not about to pay child support, why he hates Christmas and why he's not a dangerous guy even tough he was arrested for having explosives in his car.

"The one thing I want you to know is that i never meant to hurt anyone. ... I absolutely positively want you to know I could never hurt anyone."

Glad we've established that.

Also, KC Currents interviewed Roeder's ex-wife, Lindsey Roeder, who says her ex- chose buying a gun over her heart meds.