George Tiller, one of only a few doctors in the nation who performed abortions late in pregnancy, was shot to death here on Sunday morning in the foyer of his longtime church as he handed out the church bulletin.

Late on Sunday, authorities in Kansas said they had taken into custody a 51-year-old man from Merriam, about three hours northeast of Wichita, whom they said they expected to charge with murder on Monday.

Scott Roeder of Merriam, Kansas, whom authorities have described as a suspect in the fatal shooting, was once a subscriber and occasional contributor to a newsletter, Prayer and Action News, said Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines who runs the newsletter. Leach said that he had met Roeder once, and that Roeder had described similar views to his own on abortion.

In more than three decades of providing abortions, Tiller, 67, had become a focal point for those opposed to abortion. In addition to regular protests outside his clinic, house and church, Tiller had once seen his clinic bombed; later, in 1993, an abortion opponent had shot him in both arms.

On Sunday, moments after services had begun at Reformation Lutheran Church, Tiller was shot once with a handgun, the authorities said. A dozen other churchgoers were standing near him when he was shot, police said. The gunman pointed the weapon at two who tried to stop him, then fled the church and drove off toward Kansas City. Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, was inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting.

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