This year’s black Friday turned out to be much darker than imagined for the citizens of Colorado Springs, Colorado. On Friday, a lone man walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic and began firing weapons and taking civilian hostages. Upon the arrival of law enforcement, the man began firing at officers and killed one officer. Two civilians were also killed and 9 others were wounded. The altercation lasted over 6 hours and finally ended with the suspect surrendering himself to the police.
The suspect arrested at the scene is a 57 year old man named Robert Lewis Dear. A recent resident of Colorado, Dear originally lived in the Carolinas and has a small history of run-ins with the police. He has been previously accused of domestic assault, animal cruelty, and being a peeping tom. He was never convicted on any of these charges. Recent neighbors of his say that they never knew a lot about him except for a past occasion where he was distributing anti-Obama pamphlets to neighbors.
No official motive for the crime has been concluded but Dear admitted to authorities after his arrest that he has anti-abortion and anti-government beliefs. He was also reportedly making remarks to officers during his arrest about “baby parts”. Many people are putting the pieces together and claiming that Dear is referencing the “sting operation” videos about Planned Parenthood that have been recently circulated on the internet. Over the last few months, 8 videos have been distributed online that purport to show representatives from Planned Parenthood illegally selling aborted fetal tissue on the black market. The videos were produced by an anti-abortion coalition and have been heavily criticized for being misleading and highly edited to distort meaning.