Suspect in clinic shootings will be charged with murder
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The man accused of Friday’s deadly shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs was told Monday he will be charged with firstdegree murder in the killing of three people, including a police officer, during the standoff at the facility.
Speaking in a raspy voice, the white-bearded suspect, Robert Lewis Dear, appeared via a video hookup from El Paso County Jail, where he has been held since surrendering to police after the five-hour siege.
Dear wore a padded, white vest with black straps and gazed downward during most of the hearing. It was his first appearance in court in the case.
He responded “no questions” when asked by Chief District Judge Gilbert Martinez if he had any questions about his rights.
Public Defender Daniel King, who represented Colorado theatre shooter James Holmes, stood beside Dear and will act as his lawyer.
The man is expected to be formally charged on Dec. 9. Relatives of the victims sat in the courtroom during the hearing.
Dear, 57, is accused of fatally shooting a University of Colorado police officer, Garrett Swasey, 42, who tried to stop the attack.
He also killed Ke’arre Stewart, 29, an Iraq war veteran, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two, who were both accompanying friends to the clinic.
The rampage sent nine other people to a hospital.
Colorado Springs police have declined to disclose any information on a motive for the attack, and a judge ordered the sealing of investigatory court documents at the request of prosecutors.
A law enforcement official said Dear told authorities “no more baby parts” after being arrested. The comment was among several statements Dear made to authorities after his arrest, making it difficult to know his specific motivation.
U.S. Attorney John Walsh said investigators have been in touch with lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights and National Security divisions, a move that suggests officials could pursue federal charges in addition to state homicide ones. Walsh did not elaborate.
One possible avenue could be the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a crime to injure or intimidate clinic patients and employees.
“The case may fit the criteria for a federal domestic terrorism case, but based on my experience, I would be very surprised if this is not simply a local prosecution,” said John Suthers, the mayor of Colorado Springs, who is a former U.S. attorney and state attorney general.
Planned Parenthood said witnesses believe the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion.
Suthers, however, said it’s not clear whether the shooting was intended to send an ideological message.
Whatever authorities decide is sure to be controversial, given the political murkiness of Dear’s statements and the debate over Planned Parenthood, which was reignited in July when anti-abortion activists released undercover video they said showed the group’s personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.
The organization has denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement of the costs for donating the organs to researchers.