Robert L. Dear Jr., who opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado in 2015, killing three and wounding nine others, died in federal prison over the weekend, according to inmate records.
Mr. Dear, 67, died Saturday at a medical facility for federal prisoners in Springfield, Mo., according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
On Nov. 27, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Mr. Dear attacked the clinic after having stopped his pickup truck multiple times to seek directions before calling the clinic itself. He had rifles, handguns, propane canisters and over 500 rounds of ammunition.
The episode lasted for hours, with 24 people being evacuated, some after the authorities rammed an armored vehicle into the building to rescue them. After almost six hours, Mr. Dear surrendered to officers.
Mr. Dear told the police that he had attacked the clinic because he was “upset with them performing abortions and the selling of baby parts,” according to court documents. He also told a detective he revered Paul Hill, who was executed in Florida in 2003 for killing an abortion doctor and his volunteer escort.
Mr. Dear killed three people: Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer; Ke’Arre M. Stewart, 29, an Army specialist in Iraq; and Jennifer Markovsky, 35, a mother from Hawaii.
After surrendering, Mr. Dear faced 179 felony charges, including multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. He was indicted on 68 counts in federal court.
As of September, Mr. Dear’s federal case was still pending, according to his criminal court docket. His court proceedings were often loud and disruptive. He declared himself a “warrior for the babies,” declared that he was guilty and sought to be his own lawyer.
Mr. Dear was found unfit to stand trial, a contentious point between him and his lawyer.
At one point Mr. Dear told the court that he believed the purpose of the exam to determine if he was fit to stand trial was to drug him and “make me a zombie.”
The ruling by Judge Gilbert A. Martinez found Mr. Dear to be mentally incompetent, and said he suffered from wide-ranging delusions that the federal government had been following and spying on him for years.
After the ruling Mr. Dear was sent to a state-run mental hospital for treatment aimed at restoring him to competency, a legal standard that requires him to understand the court proceedings and to help in his own defense.
An entry in his court proceedings revealed that Judge Robert E. Blackburn had believed Mr. Dear could not become competent without medication. After lengthy hearings and medical expertise revealing him to have delusional disorder, Mr. Dear was ordered by Judge Blackburn to be involuntarily medicated.
It is not clear if Mr. Dear was ever determined to be competent after the ruling.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories for The Times.
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