A 57-year-old North Carolina native was charged Friday in the deaths of a Colorado Springs, Colo., police officer and two civilians that came during an hourslong standoff in at a Planned Parenthood clinic, according to the New York Daily News.
The man, Robert Lewis Dear, surrendered Friday afternoon, five hours after locking himself inside the health care clinic and beginning to fire, the report says.
Mayor John Suthers announced just after 5 p.m. MST, “The perpetrator is in custody,” the report says. Police are still trying to establish a motive in the shooting, in which Dear was armed with a long gun and potential explosive devices, the report says.
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs identified the slain officer as Garrett Swasey, 44, a member of the campus police department for six years. "Besides the three deaths, at least four other police officers and five civilians were injured. Authorities said those individuals were all in good condition," writes the Washington Post.
Attacks against health centers associated with Planned Parenthood have risen sharply since doctored undercover videos were released this summer in a smear campaign against the group by an anti-abortion group that filmed one of its videos at a clinic in Denver.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the brave law enforcement officers who put themselves in harm’s way in Colorado Springs,” Cecile Richards, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for their heroism in helping to protect all women, men and young people as they access basic health care in this country.”
Read more at the New York Daily News and the Washington Post.