While many details were still not clear, the Colorado shooting appeared to touch a number of America's most sensitive issues, including access to guns, abortion rights and even the Black Lives Matter movement. Activists noted that a white gunman suspected of shooting several police officers was taken into custody and not killed.
The shooter burst into the clinic on Friday and opened fire as patients and staff took cover under furniture and inside locked rooms. By the time he surrendered, three people were dead including a police officer and nine others were wounded, authorities said.
The gunman didn't get past a locked door leading to the main part of the facility, the regional head of Planned Parenthood said yesterday. Vicki Cowart said there had been no armed security.
Planned Parenthood, a national organization that offers women's health services including abortions, said its staffers were safe. It did not know whether the organization was the target.
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The Colorado Springs mayor said authorities aren't ready to discuss a possible motive but said people can make "inferences from where it took place." John Suthers said the clinic's security staff were "incredibly helpful" in working with police to monitor the gunman's whereabouts on surveillance video.
Neighbors and authorities described Dear as a loner who avoided eye contact. He lived part of the time in a North Carolina mountain cabin with no electricity or running water. A cross made of twigs hung on the wall of Dear's shack.