COLORADO SPRINGS, Dec. 9 (UPI) — The man accused of killing three people last month in an attack on a Planned Parenthood branch in Colorado on Wednesday said there is no need for a trial because he is guilty, news media reported.
At a hearing Wednesday, Robert Lewis Dear reportedly shouted, “I am guilty” during an outburst in the El Paso County courtroom, and stated he was a “warrior for the babies.”
Dear, 57, faces three counts of murder for the Nov. 27 attack in which prosecutors say he entered a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood and began shooting indiscriminately. Resident Jennifer Markovsky, Army veteran Ke’Arre Marcell Stewart, and police Officer Garrett Swasey were killed in the shootings. Nine others were wounded.
“You will never know the amount of blood I saw in that place,” Dear added, according to a report by CBS Denver Wednesday.
He also reportedly said, “protect the babies” and “no more baby parts” during the arraignment hearing, which leveled 179 different criminal counts against him.
Dear’s remarks indicate that a possible motive for the deadly assault was the national controversy surrounding the birth control organization this year that arose from a series of “undercover” videos released by anti-abortion activists. The videos purportedly show agency personnel discussing the sale of fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood has maintained that the videos were edited to convey a different meaning than was intended by the agency’s personnel. In an effort to stem the flow of negativity, Planned Parenthood has publicly dismissed the videos and said it will stop accepting “donations” for receiving fetal tissue — an activity it said amounted to very little of its normal operations.
“Our role in fetal tissue research is an extremely small part of what we do. In fact, just 1 percent of our health centers currently facilitate tissue donation for fetal tissue research,” agency president Cecile Richards said in October.
Dear indicated that his reason for the outburst Wednesday was to keep his attorney from suppressing what happened inside the clinic.The attorney, Daniel King, also represented Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in August.
Documents filed with the court say Dear has a violent past, particularly toward women.
