The man who acknowledges killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic idolised an abortion foe who killed a Florida doctor more than two decades earlier, court documents released on Monday show.
Robert Dear told police he attacked the clinic in Colorado Springs because he was upset with the reproductive health organization for “the selling of baby parts,” according to the court documents, which give the deepest look yet into his seething disdain for abortion providers. Dear also told investigators he put glue in the locks at an abortion clinic when he lived in South Carolina, a common protest technique among activists trying to shut down such facilities.
The documents were unsealed on Monday after The Associated Press and other news outlets petitioned the state’s highest court for their release. Judge Gilbert Martinez initially refused to make them public, saying the media do not have a First Amendment right to access court documents, which prompted the months long court fight over records that are routinely released in criminal cases. They include Dear’s arrest warrant and applications for warrants to search Dear’s pickup truck, computer, emails and tumbledown trailer in rural Hartsel, Colorado.
Dear (57), is charged with 179 counts, including murder, attempted murder and assault, in the Nov. 27 attack. He held police at bay for more than five hours at the clinic, injuring nine others and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from surrounding businesses. As he was being put in a patrol car, Dear began yelling about the killing of babies and “no more baby parts,” according to the court documents.
The dead included a police officer from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and two people who were accompanying friends to the clinic separately.
In courtroom outbursts, Dear declared himself a “warrior for the babies” and said he was guilty. A hearing this month will reveal more about whether he is competent to continue with his criminal case.
The documents show Dear had been nursing a grudge against abortion providers for years.
Before the shooting, Dear frequently posted messages online about his anti-abortion views, he told police. In 2009, he emailed his son a link to a website that has the stated purpose of “honoring heroes who stood up for the unborn,” with links to information about Hill and others who had targeted abortion clinics.
Dear asked several people for directions to the Planned Parenthood, finally getting the address by calling the clinic.
After killing his first victims, surveillance footage shows him shooing out the window of an employee entrance, going back and forth between the clinic and his truck, and setting up propane tanks in the parking lot that he told police he hoped would explode if he shot them.
