Fetuses in Gosnell case deemed black, male

All seven of the babies allegedly killed in late-term abortions by Kermit Gosnell at his squalid West Philly clinic will be counted in homicide figures as black males, even though only one of the babies has been identified as such.

Lt. Ray Evers, a police spokesman, said that the Police Department will count the race of the remaining six fetuses as black because "most of the folks that came in to Gosnell's house of horrors were black," he said.

The gender, he said, will be listed as male for all of them. "Males as a gender was picked, because we just picked males," Evers said, when asked to explain.

The eight victims are included in this year's homicide count.

Although the deaths of patient Karnamaya Mongar (a Nepalese immigrant) and seven late-term fetuses, allegedly delivered alive and later killed, occurred before this year, they are included in the 2011 tally, according to the rules of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports guidelines, which state that they be counted in the year in which authorities became aware of them, according to police.

Also in accordance with reporting guidelines, police must assign a race and gender to each of the fetuses. Authorities know the race and gender for only one - because Gosnell workers were so shocked at its size, they took a picture of it, according to the grand jury's report.

That baby, estimated to be 32 weeks, is a black baby boy.

However, authorities do not know the race and gender of the six other fetuses because their remains were never found.