Bio & Incident Details
Age: 34
Tour: 9 years
Badge # 257
Cause: Bomb
Incident Date: 1/29/1998
Weapon: Explosives; Bomb
Suspect: Sentenced to life
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Officer Sande Sanderson was killed in a bomb explosion while moonlighting as a security guard at an abortion clinic.
Officer Sanderson and one of the clinic's nurses were opening the clinic when the bomb detonated. The nurse was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. Officer Sanderson is the first person ever to be killed in an abortion clinic bombing.
The suspect had evaded searches involving several hundred state and federal officers by hiding in a national forest in North Carolina since the incident. The suspect was apprehended on May 31, 2003, when a police officer in Murphy, North Carolina, spotted him digging through trash and arrested him. On April 13, 2005, the suspect pled guilty to the bombing in which Officer Sanderson was killed. He was sentenced to four life sentences.
Officer Sanderson is survived by his wife and one child.
