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Suspect in Planned Parenthood attack makes 1st appearance

By SADIE GURMAN, Associated Press
Published: November 30, 2015, 2:50pm
4 Photos
Bethany Winder, a nurse who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., plants a sign in support of Planned Parenthood just south of its clinic as police investigators gather evidence near the scene of Friday's shooting at the clinic Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in northwest Colorado Springs.
Bethany Winder, a nurse who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., plants a sign in support of Planned Parenthood just south of its clinic as police investigators gather evidence near the scene of Friday's shooting at the clinic Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in northwest Colorado Springs. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Photo Gallery

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The man accused in the shooting rampage at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic made his first court appearance Monday and learned that he will face first-degree murder charges in the deaths of three people killed in the standoff with police.

Speaking in a raspy voice, Robert Lewis Dear appeared via a video hookup from the El Paso County Jail, where he has been held since surrendering after Friday’s five-hour siege.

The white-bearded suspect wore a padded vest with black straps and gazed downward during most of the hearing. Victims’ relatives watched from a courtroom.

When asked by Chief District Judge Gilbert Martinez if he understood his rights, Dear replied, “no questions.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— A gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, including a police officer and two people accompanying friends to the clinic Friday. Here's a look at the lives of the victims: KE'ARRE STEWART The 29-year-old went with someone to the clinic when he was killed and leaves behind two girls, 11 and 5, who live in Texas, said Amburh Butler, a lifelong friend and family spokeswoman. Stewart and Butler met when they were 11 in Waco, Texas, and were high school sweethearts, she said. They both joined the Army, with Stewart enlisting right after his high school graduation in 2004, Butler said. He served in the 4th Infantry Division and was deployed to Iraq, describing the horrors he saw on the front lines in frequent letters he sent to Butler. "He would tell me how terrible it was, how many guys he watched die. It was terrible for him," she said. The Army stationed Stewart at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs in 2013, Butler said. He was discharged from the military the following year. "He went someplace where people expect to die, only to come back ... and be killed," she said. Butler said she last spoke to her friend Thursday, when he sounded upbeat to be spending Thanksgiving with friends. "He was just a standup guy, he would take a bullet for you," Butler said. "He was the most sincere person I'd ever met." JENNIFER MARKOVSKY The 36-year-old Colorado Springs woman was accompanying a friend to the clinic when she was killed in the shooting rampage, her father told The Denver Post. John Ah-King described his daughter as a kindhearted, lovable person with two children. GARRETT SWASEY The police officer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, died when he was called to assist with an active shooter at the nearby clinic. Swasey was married with two children and was a co-pastor at Hope Chapel, an evangelical church in Colorado Springs. Before he became an officer, Swasey was a junior national couples ice dancing champion. He was known for going out of his way to help, including recently stopping to help someone in a serious car accident just off campus even though he was off duty and headed home, university police Lt. Marc Pino said. Swasey was originally from Melrose, Massachusetts. He moved to Colorado in the 1980s to pursue competitive figure skating, his father told the Boston Globe. He became a police officer six years ago, around the time his daughter was born, 73-year-old David Swasey said. As a skater, Garrett Swasey won a national championship in the junior ranks and competed in the U.S. Championships at least three times, his father said. — KRISTEN WYATT and SADIE GURMAN, Associated Press

Public defender Daniel King, who represented Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, stood beside Dear and will act as his attorney. The suspect is expected to be formally charged on Dec. 9.

Dear, 57, is accused of fatally shooting a university police officer who responded to the attack, as well as an Iraq war veteran and a mother of two inside the clinic. Nine other people were wounded.

After Monday’s hearing, District Attorney Dan May said Dear could face other charges, but he did not elaborate.

Police have declined to speculate on a motive for the attack. A law enforcement official said Dear told authorities, “no more baby parts,” after being arrested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.

Planned Parenthood has said witnesses believe the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion. But Dear has been described by acquaintances as a reclusive loner who did not seem to have strong political or social opinions.

The Colorado district attorney said he has been in touch with U.S. Attorney John Walsh’s office about the case. Walsh said investigators have been consulting with the Justice Department’s civil rights and national security divisions, a move that suggests authorities could pursue federal charges in addition to state homicide ones. He did not elaborate.

One possible avenue could be the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a crime to injure or intimidate clinic patients and employees.

Whatever authorities decide about motive is sure to be controversial, given the political murkiness of Dear’s statements and the debate over Planned Parenthood, which was reignited in July when anti-abortion activists released undercover video they said showed the group’s personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.

A Republican congressional leader on Monday defended a House investigation of Planned Parenthood’s provision of fetal tissue to researchers.

But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, also indicated that the GOP-run Congress will not risk a government shutdown fight with President Barack Obama over GOP efforts to halt federal funding for the organization.

McCarthy contested suggestions by Planned Parenthood defenders that harsh language from the organization’s critics has helped create a hostile political environment. Planned Parenthood gets about a third of its annual $1.3 billion budget from Washington. Federal money cannot be used to finance abortions except in rare cases.

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