Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic shooting suspect faces first-degree murder

Dear wore a white vest and blinked periodically as the judge spoke to him. He gazed downward during most of the hearing. The victim’s relatives watched from the El Paso County courtroom, NBC News reported. Daniel was one of the attorneys defending James Holmes, who was convicted earlier this year of killing 12 people and wounding another 70 during a 2012 shooting spree in a Colorado movie theater.

The suspect is expected to be formally charged on 9 December.

The victims were police officer Garrett Swasey, 44, a native of Melrose, Mass.; Iraq war veteran Ke’Arre Stewart, 29; and a mother of two children, Jennifer Markovsky, 35.

The rampage touched off an hours-long standoff and shootout Friday that also sent nine other people to a hospital. “This was a man who they said prior to this was mentally disturbed”.

As New York State Police step up patrols around Planned Parenthood centers around the state following last week’s attacks in Colorado, Erin Cabral of Planned Parenthood Central & Western New York said her first thought was prayers for the people involved.

A law enforcement official said Dear told authorities “no more baby parts” after being arrested, part of a rambling statement that investigators were parsing to understand the reasoning. But Dear has been described by acquaintances as a reclusive loner who did not seem to have strong political or social opinions.

District Attorney Dan May said prosecutors had 63 days after Dear’s arraignment to decide whether to bring a death penalty case.

Barbara Mescher Micheau of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, says 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear told her that he vandalized a Planned Parenthood clinic in Charleston, but the organization didn’t have a clinic in the city then. He did not elaborate. Dear could be charged with a federal hate crime or with violating a 1994 federal law that makes it a crime to use physical force against patients and clinic employees.

The clinic’s parent organisation, Planned Parenthood, has said witnesses believe the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion.

“Four congressional investigations show no wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood”.

But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, also indicated that the GOP-run Congress will not risk a government shutdown fight with President Barack Obama over GOP efforts to halt federal funding for the organization.

“I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood”.

The shootings at Planned Parenthood drew swift criticism from pro-life leaders.

No records show how the case was ultimately handled.

Micheau says Dear never talked much about Planned Parenthood, but he was opposed to abortion.