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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Planned Parenthood Killer ‘Happy’ at Arrest

DENVER (CN) - The man who killed three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic called President Obama the Antichrist and told police he expected to be greeted in heaven by grateful aborted fetuses, newly unsealed court documents revealed Monday.

Robert Dear was arrested in November after a five-hour standoff at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Colorado's Fourth Judicial District Chief Judge Gilbert Martinez unsealed arrest and search records under pressure from the media.

Dear, who is charged with murdering Jennifer Markovsky, Ke'Arre Stewart, and University of Colorado Springs police Officer Garrett Swasey, told police he was "happy" that the shooting had shut down the clinic, according to the documents.

Dear told police he hoped he would be greeted by "aborted fetuses at the gates of heaven and they would thank him what for what he did because his actions saved lives of other unborn fetuses."

The arrest warrant revealed comprehensive details of the murders. Dear got the address of the Planned Parenthood that morning by calling Planned Parenthood himself. He drove to the clinic in his Toyota Tacoma and left several backup guns in the pickup before tearing across the parking lot outside the clinic.

On his way inside, Dear shot at a car and shot a woman in the arm after telling her that "she shouldn't have come here today." He also shot a man who was outside the clinic calling his bank because his credit card had been rejected at the front desk inside.

Dear, wearing a homemade ballistic vest made of coins and duct tape, barged into the Planned Parenthood with 4 SKS rifles - semi-automatic firearms typically used by hunters. He shot and killed Ke'Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky inside, and shot Officer Swasey, who was approaching the clinic, through the window.

Dear also brought propane tanks. He told officers he thought that if he shot the propane tanks they would explode.

"[Dear] advised that he had in fact shot the propane tanks during this incident hoping they would explode but they did not," an affidavit attached to the arrest warrant states.

The documents detail emails and Facebook messages from Dear's accounts after police gained access to his laptop computers. The emails suggest Dear is an admirer of Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering Dr. John Britton and a bodyguard in 1994.

In a 2009 email to his son, Dear attached several links to websites detailing people who used violence against abortion providers, including Hill's page, upon which Dear had left comments. The title of the email was "hero."

Dear has yet to formally plead, but has confessed to the murders of three people at the clinic on Nov. 27, 2015. It has yet to be determined if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

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