Documents Detail Scene of Planned Parenthood Shooting in Colorado Springs
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Version 0 of 1. DENVER — Robert L. Dear Jr., his pickup truck loaded with rifles, handguns and propane canisters, had to stop several times to ask for directions to the Planned Parenthood center in Colorado Springs. Eventually, he found the clinic’s address after calling Planned Parenthood itself, and once there, the police say, he carried out an hourslong shooting rampage that left three people dead and nine people wounded. A Colorado court on Monday unsealed search warrants and an arrest warrant that offer a glimpse into the carnage of the Nov. 27 shooting and Mr. Dear’s violent anti-abortion views. He told the police that he had attacked the clinic because he was “upset with them performing abortions and the selling of baby parts.” Planned Parenthood came under scrutiny in July after anti-abortion groups released secretly recorded videos and claimed the organization was illegally selling fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood has denied those accusations, and several state and congressional investigations have found no misconduct by the organization. The documents unsealed on Monday in Colorado suggest that Mr. Dear had long admired violent opponents of abortion. After a standoff with the police, Mr. Dear was arrested and told a Colorado Springs detective that he revered Paul Hill, who was executed in Florida in 2003 for killing an abortion provider and his volunteer escort. Mr. Dear said that Mr. Hill “was somebody he thought very highly of,” according to an affidavit attached to a search warrant. He said he had posted messages on a website for Mr. Hill, and had posted other anti-abortion and anti-government messages. Mr. Dear has been charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and other crimes stemming from the rampage. His lawyers have raised questions about whether he is competent to stand trial, and he underwent an evaluation at Colorado’s state mental hospital. Its results have not been released publicly, but are expected to be discussed at a court hearing this month. The documents unsealed on Monday provide one of the most detailed accounts yet of the chaotic siege at the Planned Parenthood center. In the stolid, staccato language of a police report, the files say Mr. Dear shot one of his victims in the parking lot as he tried to flee. He told another victim that she should not have come to the clinic that day, then shot her in the right arm. “He also shot at other officers as they arrived on the scene, and stated he had placed the propane tanks outside and planned on shooting them to make them explode,” a detective’s affidavit attached to an arrest warrant for Mr. Dear said. The tanks never exploded. The names of the victims have been redacted. But an Iraq war veteran, Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, and a mother of two, Jennifer Markovsky, 35, were the two civilians killed. After shooting his way into the building, Mr. Dear later told investigators, he looked out a tinted window and saw an officer approaching the building with his gun out. Mr. Dear shot that officer through the window. Police identified the officer as Garrett Swasey, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus officer who was killed after rushing to the scene. |