An abortion doctor was arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on pro-life advocates outside of the abortion clinic where he works, but getting the police to take action wasn’t easy. In fact, the protestors initially felt authorities weren’t taking the situation seriously, and after seeing their video, it’s hard not to agree.
When Dr. Ronald Yunis, a 52-year-old abortion doctor in Phoenix, Arizona, allegedly pulled a gun on protesters outside his clinic, the pro-life advocates called the cops. Armed with a video of the ordeal that appeared to show the abortionist brandishing a pistol and pointing it at them, the protesters expected Dr. Yunis to be in cuffs in no time. Instead, the police initially seemed unwilling to do anything about it.
It all began when a group of pro-life advocates gathered outside Acacia Women’s Center to hold a peaceful demonstration. It was one of many being held in the state, organized by End Abortion Now, a coalition of churches that advocates for ending abortion through ministry at abortion clinics, publicity, and legislative means, The Blaze reported. The Phoenix clinic is one of many that End Abortion Now visits regularly.
Elvis Kesto was among the pro-life demonstrators, who were standing on public property outside the clinic as an abortion doctor, identified as Ronald Yunis, drove by them in a red Tesla as he left the facility. As Dr. Yunis passed the group, he held up an object that appeared to be a handgun and pointed it toward Kesto before driving away — and it was all caught on camera.
With video evidence of the incident, Kesto reported Dr. Yunis to the Phoenix police that very day, but when he saw Yunis pulling into the Acacia Women’s Center in the same red Telsa a week later on a Thursday morning, the pro-life advocates realized nothing had happened. That’s when Kesto, who was demonstrating in front of the clinic again, contacted the police once more, asking them to send officers to the scene. Once again, however, things didn’t go as the demonstrators expected.
Within an hour, officers arrived at the scene, and after speaking to Kesto, two officers, identified as Officer Madeira and Officer Wilson, entered the clinic to question Dr. Ronald Yunis about the video footage Kesto showed them of the prior incident. Much to Kesto’s dismay, when Madeira exited the clinic, he informed the pro-life advocate that there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest.
Even though he had viewed the video and still images of the incident, Madeira claimed he could not “conclusively” say Yunis was holding a gun, and Yunis denied ever bringing a firearm to the clinic. No arrest was made at the time, but Phoenix PD Detective Luis Samudio told Faithwire that detectives were still investigating, adding that it was “not accurate” to say nothing was being done just because Yunis had not yet been arrested. That didn’t sit well with the pro-life advocates, though.
Jeff Durbin, a pastor of Apologia Church which was established by End Abortion Now, said he believed authorities would have treated pro-life demonstrators more severely had they done anything even remotely similar. “We don’t actually carry at the abortion mill, because we don’t want any confusion about our purposes there,” Durbin explained. “If we had been involved in anything like [what Yunis allegedly did], there is absolutely no question I’d be behind bars.”
The group gathers at the clinic regularly, and Durbin said that right before police arrived that Thursday, they had convinced a woman not to go through with her abortion and offered her assistance going forward. He added that Dr. Yunis is aware of who they are and admitted that there had never been any kind of violence or threats between the doctor and protesters before. “He isn’t nice to us, but I’m not sure if we’ve ever had any other conflict in the past with him,” Durbin said. “This was a shock to us, let’s put it that way.”
This was also the first time the organization had any meaningful interaction with the Phoenix Police Department regarding their demonstrations. Although it didn’t go as they had hoped initially, Dr. Ronald Yunis was eventually arrested by the Phoenix Police. According to Apologia Studios, that decision was announced just 4 hours after they released their video, showing their encounters with both Dr. Ronald Yunis and the Phoenix Police.
Court records show police reviewed the video footage the day after they had been called back to the clinic by Kesto and determined Yunis had pointed a gun at the protesters, AZ Central reported. Officers pulled Yunis over that Friday afternoon and arrested him. He asked that his vehicle not be towed. When that request was denied, he confessed to officers that he had a gun inside his car. He was booked into Maricopa County Jail on aggravated assault charges.
Regardless of where you stand on the abortion debate, we should all agree that aggravated assault with a deadly weapon deserves to be treated as such with justice served. Thanks to the pressure Apologia Studios, End Abortion Now, and the public put on law enforcement, Phoenix PD did what was right and Dr. Ronald Yunis will face the consequences of his actions.
The pro-life advocates demonstrated the right way to handle an upsetting situation by following the law and utilizing law enforcement to bring about appropriate punishment rather than attempting to inflict vigilante justice, as Dr. Ronald Yunis did. Behavior such as his does nothing to resolve conflict. Instead, it’s the resolve of advocates such as those with End Abortion Now, who use cameras for both their own accountability and protection and who didn’t cower or give up, that brings about positive change.
Source: Tap Worthy Happenings
0 Comments