[ot-caption title=”Women showing their support of Planned Parenthood. (via Charlotte Cooper, Flickr)”]

Last Friday, November 27th, just before noon, Robert Lewis Dear Jr. allegedly walked into a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs and began shooting. In a standoff with the police that lasted five hours, the gunman killed three people and wounded nine before he eventually turned himself in to the authorities.

Some believe that Dear’s choice to target a Planned Parenthood Clinic seems to demonstrate that this attack was ideologically motivated. Dear commented “no more baby parts” while talking to the police after the shooting, which is a reference to videos released earlier this year showing Planned Parenthood staff discussing fetal tissue research. President of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains believes the shooter “was motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion.” However, police have still not officially announced a motive in the case.

The people killed include 44-year-old police officer Garrett Swasey, who rushed to the scene to aid his fellow officers. Also killed was Iraq War veteran Ke’Arre Stewart, who learned he would be having a third child minutes before the gunman attacked the clinic. The 29-year-old used his military training to help others before the shooter took his life. The third victim, Jennifer Markovsky, a Hawaii native and mother of two children (ages six and ten), was accompanying a friend to an appointment when the shooting took place. The nine others wounded by Dear (five police officers and four civilians) are in stable condition.

Dear made his first court appearance on Monday, and is being held on suspicion for first-degree murder, which will result in, at minimum, a life sentence in prison or the death penalty, at maximum, if he is convicted. He supposedly has a history of targeting Planned Parenthood clinics, as his ex-wife claims that he once put glue in the locks of a clinic over twenty years ago. Dear has been known to be violent in the past; he was charged with animal cruelty in 2003 but found not guilty, and was charged with being a peeping tom a year earlier. His wife also accused him of domestic assault in 1997. Dear will be formally charged with first-degree murder at his next hearing on December 9^th.

Sources: Vox, Mother Jones, FactCheck, CNN, The Washington Post, 9News, NBC News, Fox News

Photo Source: Charlotte Cooper