“This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal”, he said.
Advertisement
In a written statement, Obama said that regardless of the motive, it was unacceptable that these sort of mass shootings happen so frequently in the United States.
But Dear will face much tougher charges after he was arrested following a standoff with police on Friday afternoon, more than five hours after he opened fire near the Planned Parenthood clinic.
The alleged gunman is 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear, formerly of North Carolina, according to a police source.
Police say five other officers were wounded and hospitalized in good condition.
The names of the two civilians had not be disclosed by Saturday morning, but were not believed to include any employees of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains released a statement that indicated none of the other victims worked at the clinic. According to a report by the Associated Press, jail booking records indicate Dear is due in court on Monday, though very little additional information is available about him, including his motivations and whether he had any connection to Planned Parenthood.
The shooter was armed with some kind of “long weapon” with a shoulder stock such as a rifle, and some witnesses reported hearing automatic fire. “They were able to shout to the suspect and make communication with him and at that point they were able to get him to surrender and he was taken into custody”, Ms Buckley said.
Three people, including a policeman, were killed in the incident.
The president denounced the gunman for “terrorizing an entire community” and said that after the shooting “more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them”.
At one point, officers called over the radio that Dear had gone inside the Planned Parenthood and was firing out the windows at propane tanks placed around the clinic’s parking lot.
For now, Robert’s motive fort he attack remains unknown.
Inside, terrified patients and staff hid wherever they could find cover.
Mayor John Suthers said: “This is a bad tragedy”.
The Colorado Springs clinic has been the target of repeated protests by anti-abortion activists, and in recent years moved to new quarters on the city’s northwest side – a facility derided as a “fortress” by critics of Planned Parenthood.
At 11:40 a.m., the Colorado Springs police scanner began to erupt.
Advertisement
Planned Parenthood is controversial because some of its branches perform abortions, although the bulk of its work involves providing family planning services, screenings for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, and general health consultations. “We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country”. The video has since been discredited.
