Three people, including a police officer, died during the incident, Colorado Springs Police Department Lt. Catherine Buckley said.
Advertisement
Robert Lewis Dear’s attack on the clinic was “definitely politically motivated, ” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still underway.
NBC reports that he has family in the Lowcountry.
By the time the shooter surrendered, three people were dead – including a police officer – and nine others were wounded.
Swasey eventually ended up in law enforcement, working as a police officer on the University of Colorado at Colorado Spring.
The Planned Parenthood group – the largest single provider of abortion in the United States – has drawn anti-abortion protests in the past. A middle-aged man in a jacket, callers said, was walking around the outside of the Planned Parenthood branch on Centennial Boulevard opening fire.
In August, about 300 Colorado Springs residents opposed to abortion protested at the Centennial Boulevard clinic as part of a nationwide demonstration over a video that purportedly showed organization employees discussing the sale of fetal tissue.
The names of the two other people killed have not been released. Buckley says she doesn’t know how many or how the civilians were injured.
Governor John Hickenlooper has ordered flags be lowered to half-staff in honor of the victims of the Black Friday Shooting in Colorado Springs.
Obama tried to tighten up gun laws after the Newtown shootings, but met resistance in the U.S. Congress, including from some of his fellow Democrats, and failed to push a measure through.
The church minister, Dr. Nori Rost, offered words on the tragedy.
Robert L Dear in a police booking photo. Picture: WP Police have said little about Dear, who is being held without bail and will appear in court for an arraignment on Monday. He is expected to first face state charges and then additional federal charges.
In Hartsel, a neighbor who lives near Dear said the suspect once gave him a pamphlet opposing President Barack Obama.
Among them was Pam Dear, a woman believed to have been his wife at the time.
Sources also said the long rifle Dear allegedly used Friday wasn’t the only weapon he had with him and that Dear took several guns and ammunition to the scene as well. He has called the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, his toughest day as president.
“This is not normal”.
Advertisement
“There’s like six of us that hang out around here, and we all talk to each other, and we all hang out and help each other – but they’re not a part of our clique”, said Post, whose first interaction with Dear was when his dogs got loose and Dear handed him anti-Obama flyers.
