Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller was shot and killed Sunday morning at his church in Wichita, Kansas. Tiller had long been highlighted by peaceful pro-life groups who had employed legal means to attempt to hold him accountable for potential illegal abortions at his abortion center.

Tiller, who was 67 and one of the few abortion practitioners in the United States to do late-term abortions, was killed Sunday morning at Reformation Lutheran Church shortly after 10 a.m.

According to police and local officials, Tiller was shot in the lobby of the church while entering the facility.

The gunman, who reportedly was a white man and shot Tiller from a distance, fled the scene in a late-model vehicle registered in another part of the state of Kansas.

The vehicle has been described as a powder blue-colored Ford Taurus with Kansas license plate 225 BAB registered to a resident of Merriam, Kansas which is located in the Kansas City area.

Hours after the news of the shooting, authorities indicated they had apprehended the alleged shooter near Gardner, Kansas at around 2 p.m. local time.

Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred had said that the FBI and the KBI were called in to assist officials with apprehending the shooter.

Leading pro-life groups were quick to condemn the shooting and said the murder of Tiller, regardless of his actions involving the death of unborn children and injuring women in abortions, did not justify the use of lethal force.

National Right to Life, a large nationwide pro-life group, said it "extends its sympathies to Dr. Tiller's family over this loss of life."

"The National Right to Life Committee unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation. The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life. The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal," it said.

The Tiller shooting came on the heels of a jury acquitting Tiller of charges the state attorney filed against him for allegedly violating another late-term abortion law requiring a second, independent physician to sign off on the validity of the abortions.

The decision upset pro-life advocates who had been hoping to get Tiller to be held accountable for allegedly falsifying the reasons for some of his late-term abortions.

Yet, hours after the verdict, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, the agency that monitors doctors in the state, announced that it is considering taking action against Tiller's medical license.

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