Planned Parenthood suspect to face judge
The man accused of a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic faces a judge Monday as this community grapples with the deaths of a police officer, an Iraq War veteran and a mom.
Robert Lewis Dear is being held without bond at the El Paso Criminal Justice Center. He has not yet been charged, and search warrants and other court records have been sealed. Authorities say Dear entered the clinic Friday around 11:30 a.m. MT, shooting at officers and bystanders for nearly five hours before surrendering.
Multiple media outlets reported that Dear, 57, made a comment about “no more baby parts” after his arrest.
In a statement, the family of the slain officer, Garrett Swasey, asked for privacy. Swasey had been an expert ice dancer who became a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officers and a part-time pastor. U.S. figure skating icon Nancy Kerrigan said she was “devastated” when she heard Swasey had been killed. She told the Boston
Herald that Swasey was like a brother to her growing up and skating together in Stoneham, Mass.
Also killed were Army veteran Ke’Arre Stewart, a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, a mother of two, Colorado Springs
Gazette reported. Neither worked for Planned Parenthood, clinic officials said. Amburh Butler, who spoke on behalf of Stewart’s family, told the Associated Press that Stewart had been accompanying someone at the clinic.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, on CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper Sunday, called Dear’s actions “a form of terrorism.”
He said his state passed universal background checks, but “that didn’t help” avoid the bloodshed. “As a country, we have got a lot more thinking about ... how to make sure we keep guns out of the hands of people that are unstable,” he said.