KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said a man who died while in jail custody earlier this year is believed to be responsible for a series of attacks against its Knoxville health center in 2021, including an arson that happened last New Year's Eve.
Ashley Coffield, CEO of PPTNM, said Mark Reno is suspected to be behind both the New Year's Eve fire and an incident where shots were fired into the clinic's front door in early 2021.
Coffield said a civil complaint has been filed because Reno, who is from Jefferson City, died earlier this year. According to court records, Reno was arrested on July 18, 2022, and was being held at the Laurel County Correctional Center in London, Kentucky. The documents said he "suffered a medical episode" in mid-August and was later flown to the ICU at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center on Aug. 14.
He died in the Kentucky hospital on Aug. 15, according to court documents.
Coffield said authorities were preparing to charge him for the incidents before he died, saying he was also under investigation for two shootings at the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building in Knoxville. Reno was also under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for being allegedly involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Coffield said the government filed a civil complaint in the wake of his death to seize the property used in the crimes.
Federal authorities filed the complaint in Knoxville's U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on Sept. 26, 2022. It is not against Reno because he is dead. Instead, it names property purported to belong to him feds believe were used to commit terrorism: A 2012 Ford Fusion, a red 2006 GMC Sierra and a Model 795 .22-caliber rifle.
In the complaint, the FBI said Reno "engaged in a series of violent acts of property destruction" in Knoxville starting in early 2021, saying the vehicles were used in the health center and federal office building incidents, and the gun was used in the shooting involving the federal office building.
Affidavits filed over the Planned Parenthood incidents said Reno waited until Jan. 22, 2021, on the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to fire an incendiary projectile from a shotgun into the front entrance of the Knoxville health center. Video footage and a witness were cited in the affidavit, which said he waited in the parking plot and briefly parked on Washington Avenue.
A witness said they saw a man wearing a hat with a bandana covering his nose and mouth holding a shotgun in the driver's seat of a sedan around 5:51 a.m. The witness ran and the sedan drove through the parking lot again before the man shot out the window, hitting the health center's glass door. The man drove off, and KPD said it recovered a shotgun shell wad near the door.
Months later on the morning of the fire, security cameras from a nearby business caught a red pick-up truck leaving without headlights on around 6:32 a.m. The TBI claimed he used gasoline to accelerate the fire. Investigators said dogs trained to detect accelerants alerted authorities, and a piece of debris sent to the lab tested positive for gasoline before authorities ruled it an arson.
The shootings at the federal building happened on June 18, 2022, and July 3, 2022. Investigators said the first happened when the Holy Ghost Catholic Church held a procession in Knoxville to and from the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Courthouse. The church's Holy Ghost Knights council held prayer sessions on Saturdays in front of the Cherry Street health clinic during Lent as part of its 40 Days for Life events.
The affidavit said Reno and a red GMC pick-up truck were seen in photographs of the event as well as on a license plate reader camera that morning. Around 10:30 a.m., a security guard at the federal building noticed a damaged ground-floor window facing Locust Street.
On July 3, a subsequent shooting happened at the same building. On July 18, law enforcement executed a search warrant of the red pick-up, saying they located a rifle with an unregistered "Solvent Trap" suppressor that would have muffled the sound of it firing.
Investigators said they found a map of the church's procession as well as printed directions for the route through downtown Knoxville in Reno's desk. On July 20, investigators were authorized to search Reno's cellphone, saying they discovered photos of the federal building and Howard Baker courthouse on it that appeared to be from January 2022, as well as a screenshot of a hotel reservation for the Hilton Knoxville next to the federal building.
Authorities said a search of his phone revealed Reno had also texted someone a news article about the health clinic fire and said "we were busy in the cult of Jesus."
Investigators said a family member was able to identify Reno in security footage of one of the health clinic incidents.
After his arrest, the affidavit said Reno told a plain-clothed KFD investigator that he was part of a group called the "Church Militant Resistance," saying the group resists actions that oppose Catholic Orthodoxy, including abortions.
On April 26, 2022, the investigator said they secretly recorded a conversation with Reno where he laid out his plan to burn the center when reconstruction began. According to the affidavit, Reno claimed he also conducted surveillance on another center -- the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health -- claiming he had developed a plan to burn that clinic as well as destroy other infrastructure targets, including federal buildings.
The fire at the health center was reported before 7 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31, 2021, at the building at 710 N. Cherry St. Planned Parenthood was renovating the building. The organization did not perform surgical abortions there. It offered reproductive services and the abortion pill, according to the clinic.
Planned Parenthood had spent more than $2 million on renovating the building, which was a loss. The organization estimated it would require an equal amount to rebuild, which it said at the time it would do.
"The fire on Dec. 31 erased the hard work of many, many people, including our staff, our board of directors, our donors, our contractor," Coffield said.
The organization said Monday that it is still temporarily operating in a mobile unit and is planning to rebuild.
By the time KFD arrived last New Year's Eve, flames already had breached the roof, a sign it had been burning for some time before authorities were alerted.
KFD and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives both said they believed the fire was intentional. ATF has forensic expertise in investigating suspicious fires.
KFD investigators led the arson investigation. ATF is an assisting agency as is the FBI, he said.