Robert Dear identified as Colorado shooter, killed three near Planned Parenthood facility
Colorado Springs police have identified the shooter who opened fire at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs Friday as Robert Lewis Dear, 57, of North Carolina.
Dear allegedly began shooting outside the Planned Parenthood facility just before noon, Mountain Time, before retreating into the facility.
By the end of Dear’s 5-hour-plus rampage, one police officer was dead, as well as two other civilians. Another four officers and five civilians were injured, but are reportedly in good condition.
Dear has lived in both South Carolina and North Carolina, but recent voting records place him in Hartsel, Colorado, about an hour away from Colorado Springs. He has a long criminal history, including charges for animal cruelty and for being a peeping tom.
He was also investigated for domestic violence in 1997, when his wife accused him of hitting her and pushing her out of a window. Altogether, police investigated him nine times for committing various crimes, including threats of violence.
According to his voting records, he identifies as a woman and registered as a member of the Unite Against Fascism party.
The National Abortion Federation is already blaming the violence on the Center for Medical Progress’ undercover videos, exposing Planned Parenthood’s illegal sales of baby body parts.
Since a series of highly-edited, misleading anti-abortion videos was released in July, we have seen an unprecedented increase in hate speech and threats against abortion providers. We have been quite worried that this increase in threats would lead to a violent attack like we saw today.
This clinic is part of the Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains affiliate, which was featured in one of the highly-edited smear videos released this summer. Since that video, the affiliate has seen an increase in protesters and death threats against one of their doctors.
Although anti-abortion groups may condemn this type of violence when it happens, the way that they target and demonize providers contributes to a culture where some feel it is justifiable to murder doctors simply because they provide women with the abortion care they need.
[…] On MSNBC’s MTP Daily, California Sen. Barbara Boxer drew a line connecting pro-life rhetoric with Friday’s fatal shooting near a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood abortion clinic by Robert Dear. […]