COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –With exterior walls still carrying the bullet scars of a Nov. 27 shooting that killed three, the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic reopened Monday.
Leaders say the clinic has a full list of appointments this week for services including abortions, which the alleged gunman, Robert Lewis Dear, has said motivated his rampage.
“We are opening today with our eyes to the future,” said Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains.
The bullet scars and the missing front doors where an armored police rig crashed into the clinic to end the rampage serve as reminders of the recent past.
“They’ll be gone eventually,” Cowart said.
“It looks lovely inside. You’ll have to take my word for it,” she said. Reporters were not allowed inside.
The clinic is looking for ways to remember those who died — Ke’Arre Stewart, 29; Jennifer Markovsky, 35; and Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police officer — and honor the nine people who were wounded.
“That work is underway,” Cowart said.
Planned Parenthood is also reviewing how to keep the clinic and patients safe.
“We can’t not be aware of the danger, and of the challenge of what happened in this place,” Cowart said.
Workers at the clinic weren’t talking Monday, citing a gag order that bars police, prosecutors and others from discussing the shooting until after Dear’s trial. Dear’s case is in limbo while he undergoes a court-ordered mental health evaluation. His lawyers have filed a motion to bar disclosure of records on his jail stay.
The shooting shocked the city. Scores of police were called to the scene after the first gunshots in a standoff that lasted hours.
Periodic gunfire continued as hundreds of people huddled inside businesses around the shooting scene. Planned Parenthood staff, patients and other visitors were locked inside the clinic until Dear surrendered just before 5 p.m.
In a court appearance, Dear said he targeted the clinic.
“I’m a warrior for the babies,” he shouted in a courtroom outburst in December.
