Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting
| Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting | |
|---|---|
| Part of Anti-abortion violence | |
 Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs
|
|
| Location | Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 38°52′51″N 104°50′56″W / 38.8807°N 104.8489°WCoordinates: 38°52′51″N 104°50′56″W / 38.8807°N 104.8489°W |
| Date | November 27, 2015 c. 11:38 a.m. – 4:52 p.m. (MST) |
|
Attack type
|
Mass shooting, shootout |
| Weapons | AK-47 semi-automatic rifle |
| Deaths | 3 |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
9 |
| Perpetrator | Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. |
| Motive | Opposition to Planned Parenthood's abortion services |
| Robert Dear | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. April 16, 1958 Charleston, South Carolina |
| Residence | Hartsel, Colorado |
| Criminal charge | Murder, attempted murder |
| Spouse(s) | Divorced |
| Conviction(s) | Declared incompetent to stand trial |
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 taken into custody and charged three days later with first-degree murder and ordered held without bond. At a December 9 court appearance, 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 appeared in court again on December 23, and asserted his desire to act as his own attorney in the criminal case against him. The judge ordered a mental competency evaluation to assess whether Dear is sufficiently competent to exercise his right to do so. Following subsequent evaluations that determined Dear to be delusional, the judge in the case ruled in May 2016 that Dear was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him indefinitely confined to a Colorado state mental hospital.
The incident drew comments from the anti-abortion and abortion-rights movements, as well as political leaders.
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 officer. 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.
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Wikipedia