Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting

Robert Lewis Dear Jr. (born April 16, 1958), aged 57 at the time of his arrest, was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dear spent most of his life in the Carolinas.

His ex-wife Barbara Mescher Michaux, who was married to Dear from 1985 to 1993, told NBC News that Dear had targeted a Planned Parenthood clinic before, by putting glue on its locks, and had a history of violent behavior.

In May 1991, Dear was arrested and convicted in Charleston, for the unlawful carrying of a "long blade knife" and illegal possession of a loaded gun.

In the court document for their 1993 divorce, Mescher Michaux said, "He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions. He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end."

Dear wrote on a marijuana Internet forum: "Turn to JESUS or burn in hell [...] WAKE UP SINNERS U CANT SAVE YOURSELF U WILL DIE AN WORMS SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH, NOW YOUR SOUL IS GOING SOMEWHERE."

He also posted notes on the same forum describing his own marijuana usage and stating that he was looking for women to "party" with.

He worked as an independent art dealer and lived in a succession of trailers and cabins before moving to Colorado in 2014.

He was living in a trailer in Hartsel at the time of the shooting.

On November 27, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine.

A police officer and two civilians were killed; five police officers and four civilians were injured.

After a standoff that lasted five hours, police SWAT teams crashed armored vehicles into the lobby and the attacker surrendered.

The attacker, Robert Lewis Dear Jr., was arrested, charged in state court with first-degree murder, and ordered held without bond.

At court appearances, Dear repeatedly interrupted proceedings, made statements affirming his guilt (although he did not enter a formal plea), and expressed anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood views, calling himself "a warrior for the babies."

He also asserted his desire to act as his own attorney in the criminal case against him.

Subsequent mental competency evaluations ordered by the state court determined Dear to be delusional.

The judge presiding over the state case ruled in May 2016 that Dear was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him indefinitely confined to a Colorado state mental hospital, where he has remained ever since.

In 2018, the court ruled that Dear remains incompetent to stand trial.

In December 2019, separate federal charges were brought against Dear.

The incident drew comments from the anti-abortion and abortion-rights movements, as well as political leaders.

This was the second of two shootings in Colorado Springs in less than a month; the first occurred 28 days earlier.

Law enforcement responded to a report of an active shooter inside the Planned Parenthood clinic at approximately 11:38 a.m. MST.

Staff inside the clinic said they heard the gunfire outside and then moved people out of the waiting room and locked a security door.

As responding officers approached the building, the suspect fired at them, hitting several and killing one.

Police returned fire and a five-hour standoff then ensued.

Initial reports described the gunman as being armed with a long gun and wearing hunting gear.

Authorities later identified the weapon as a semi-automatic rifle.

An eyewitness in the parking lot described a man with a "cold, stone face" as he began firing and pursued a crawling man through the parking lot and into the clinic.

Another described a man with "holes in his chest" stagger into a nearby grocery store a few minutes later, saying he had been shot in the parking lot between Planned Parenthood and the store.

As many as twenty gunshots were fired within five minutes.

Police swarmed the area, and nearby stores were put on lockdown.

During the standoff, officers who made it inside the clinic traded fire with the suspect.

Police SWAT teams crashed a Bear armored vehicle into the lobby, smashing two sets of doors and rescuing some of those trapped inside.

The gunman subsequently surrendered and was taken into custody at 4:52 p.m. Following the apprehension of the gunman, law enforcement began searching the building, as well as the gunman's car, for possible explosives.

Multiple propane tanks were found near the suspect's car, and authorities said they believed that he planned to fire on the tanks to trigger an explosion.

At 9:10 p.m. the gunman was identified as Robert Lewis Dear Jr., a 57-year-old man from North Carolina.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to assist in the investigation, and President Barack Obama was briefed on the incident.

As a precautionary response to the shooting, additional law enforcement personnel were assigned to Planned Parenthood clinics in New York City and Denver.

Three individuals were killed in the shooting: University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer Garrett Swasey, 44, who responded to the shooting; Ke'Arre M. Stewart, 29, who ran back to the clinic to warn others after being shot; and Jennifer Markovsky, 35, who was accompanying a friend to the clinic.

Nine other victims—five police officers and four civilians—were shot and admitted to local hospitals.