“There’s no continuing peril to the city of Colorado Springs”, Mayor John Suthers said in a statement following the apprehension of the gunman.
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USA Today reported: “In a dramatic operation earlier Friday, with the gunman still on the loose, officers crept into the Planned Parenthood building and rescued six or seven civilians cowering in a bathroom nearby”.
Catherine Buckley told local media that later in the afternoon, officers were able to get close enough to the suspect who holed up in a clinic of Colorado Springs’ branch of Planned Parenthood and exchanged gunfire with police. Three victims were transported to Memorial Hospital.
Police evacuated “numerous people out of the Planned Parenthood building”, where the incident started, she said, though she did not know how many people.
A sheriff’s department SWAT team with at least one armoured vehicle and several ambulances had also been on standby, as the evening drew in on the snowy scene.
Police declined to discuss the gunman’s motivations.
The police officer killed in the shootout worked for the University of Colorado – that’s about ten minutes away from the Planned Parenthood clinic.
“It’s not usually a busy day for us, and no one is panicking or anything”, Pelosi said. Police told the New York Timesthat the shooter is a “white man in a trench coat with an assault rifle”.
There are reports at least three police officers may have been injured.
A law enforcement official said the gunman had been identified as Robert Lewis Dear, from North Carolina.
The officer who was killed worked for the University of Colorado, and responded to the scene “in support of an officer under fire”, according to the school’s chancellor. “We can’t verify that”, she said.
Police cordoned off the clinic, nearby medical offices and a shopping center.
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Police swarmed the area around the building after an emergency call reporting shots fired at about 11:30 a.m. Mountain Time (1830 GMT), and officers ultimately confronted the suspect inside the building, Buckley said.
