An El Paso County Sheriff’s tactical response vehicle leaves the scene on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colo., after Friday’s deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic. (Daniel Owen/The Gazette via AP)
Colorado Springs shooting suspect Robert Lewis Dear of North Carolina. (El Paso County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The man accused of opening fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs lived a troubled, isolated life in the mountains of South Carolina and Colorado, but acquaintances said he never hinted that he would target the organization.
Robert Lewis Dear, 57, will make his first appearance in court Monday. He is accused of killing a police officer and two civilians — an Iraq war veteran and a mother of two — who were accompanying separate friends to the clinic. The rampage touched off an hourslong standoff and shootout Friday that also left nine other people in the hospital. Dear’s court appearance will be done by video Monday afternoon in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs police on Sunday said they would not disclose any information on the motive for the attack.
Dear has been described by acquaintances as a reclusive loner who didn’t seem to have strong political or social opinions.
Neighbors who live near Dear’s former South Carolina home say he hid food in the woods and lived off selling prints of his uncle’s paintings of Southern plantations and the Masters golf tournament. After he moved toColorado, he once gave a neighbor pamphlets opposing President Barack Obama.
“He didn’t talk about them or anything. He just said, ‘Look them over when you get a chance,'” Zigmond Post said.
A law enforcement official said Dear told authorities “no more baby parts” after being arrested, part of a rambling statement that investigators are parsing to understand the reasoning.
The law enforcement official who recounted Dear’s statement spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation. The official said the “no more baby parts” comment was among a number of statements he made to authorities after his arrest, making it difficult to know his specific motivation.
Still, U.S. Attorney John Walsh said investigators have been in touch with lawyers from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights and National Security divisions, suggesting officials could pursue federal charges in addition to state homicide ones. One possible avenue is 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 Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, a former U.S. attorney and state attorney general. “Murder charges will be more than adequate on the local level.”
Planned Parenthood said witnesses believe the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion. Suthers said it’s unclear whether the shooting was intended to send an ideological message.
“That may or may not be the case here. We just have to see how things unravel,” Suthers said.
An El Paso County Sheriff’s tactical response vehicle leaves the scene on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colo., after Friday’s deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic. (Daniel Owen/The Gazette via AP) 
