UPDATE: A 'Wichita Eagle' Editor Was at Abortion Doctor Shooting Church

By: Joe Strupp The Wichita Eagle, which got first word out on Sunday that a local abortion doctor had been shot at church, is crediting a mid-level editor who happened to arrive at the service with helping it break the news.

Assistant Metro Editor Marcia Werts, who was not on duty Sunday, was at the same service where a gunman shot Dr. George Tiller inside Wichita's Reformation Lutheran Church, according to Tom Shine, the Eagle's deputy editor. He said she did not see the shooting, but arrived at the church after it happened.

[CORRECTION: Shine had originally told E&P Werts was at the church when the shooting occurred. She actually arrived after the incident.]

"She called me at home at 10:30 a.m., the shooting was at about 10:03 a.m.," Shine told E&P, describing Werts as "shaken, which is understandable. She told me he was shot and probably dead."

Werts, who worked Monday and Tuesday, could not be reached because she is off today. She has a Twitter account that includes one post about the incident, but no mention of her being at the service.

Once Werts informed Shine of the shooting, and that the victim was the controversial abortion doctor who had been attacked in the past, the deputy editor was on the phone rounding up reporters. "I called our cops reporter, we confirmed with police. I called another reporter who was at home and he went to the scene."

Shine, who had just come back from vacation, later went into the office. He said the Eagle Web site broke the news at just after 11 a.m., CDT. The paper's main Twitter account indicates the first posting on the shooting occurred at 11:04 a.m.

He said other news outlets soon reported it, but few had the identity of the victim because police did not reveal it until later in the afternoon.

"What everyone else didn't have [right away] is that it was Tiller who was shot," Shine said. "She called us three or four times during the day to update just a few things and helped us get some numbers of some people."

Shine said Werts did not do further reporting on the shooting because she was helping her own family, including a daughter, who had also been at the church.

"It made a difference in hearing of the story and having it confirmed," Editor Sherry Chisenhall said about Werts' part. "It was just a happenstance that someone was in the church."

Shine said Werts is a member of the church and noted that she and other members had become used to protests against Tiller and other unusual occurrences.

Chisenhall said the Eagle, which normally staffs three or four news people on Sunday, ended up bringing in at least 25 of its 73-person news staff that day as it covered the story on Web and Twitter, as well as in the Monday paper.

"I know we were far out ahead of local media," Chisenhall added.