Man Charged in 2015 Colorado Abortion Clinic Shooting Dies in Custody

A man charged in the deadly Colorado Planned Parenthood center shooting in 2015 has died in federal detention, officials reported Tuesday.

Robert Dear, 67, died Saturday in a Springfield, Missouri, federal medical facility, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed in its database.

Dear was charged with killing three people and wounding nine others in the abortion clinic shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Before he was transferred to the Missouri facility, the defendant was indefinitely confined to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, Colorado, until 2022, when a state court found him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Dear faced 179 state and federal charges related to the shooting, but had repeatedly been found incompetent to stand trial.

The challenges to Dear’s competency stalled prosecution efforts, according to Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen.

Allen said Dear’s death has removed the possibility of justice for the victims: police officer Garrett Swasey, along with Ke’Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky.

“All three victims, and this community, deserved the full measure of justice in this case but they are now denied that possibility,” Allen said in a statement. “Their family members and loved ones have endured this horror for far too long. The same is true for the five additional Colorado Springs Police Officers and the four civilians who were injured during this evil attack.”

Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and father of two, and Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Oahu, Hawaii, were with friends at the clinic when they were killed. Swasey was a campus police officer at a nearby college who responded to the shooting.

Allen’s office will begin the process of dismissing the criminal case in state court, pending the receipt of an official death certificate.

According to court filings, Dear allegedly arrived at the Colorado Springs clinic armed with six rifles, five handguns, a shotgun, propane tanks, and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. Prosecutors say he immediately began shooting at a car next to his in the clinic’s parking lot, allegedly killing one of the victims.

Dear allegedly then shot at others outside the clinic, killing a second person.

The defendant then allegedly forced his way into the building, where he continued to shoot and injure employees, patients, and others inside.

During the five-hour stand-off with police, Dear also killed one officer and injured four others.

Dear was placed on suicide watch after he was arrested because he refused to eat or drink. Soon after, mental-health professionals diagnosed him with delusional disorder and the state found Dear incompetent to stand trial.

Dear remained in state custody for about four years as additional psychiatrists found him incompetent to stand trial.

In December 2019, federal prosecutors indicted Dear on 68 counts related to the shooting.

Dear told the courts he wanted to represent himself and prosecutors asked for another competency evaluation. He was then moved to the federal Missouri medical facility to undergo the evaluation in 2022.

While at the medical facility, an evaluation found his competency could possibly be restored with antipsychotics, according to the court report.

Dear refused to take the medication voluntarily and the government asked the courts for the involuntary medication order, which was granted.

Last year, a district court ordered Dear to be involuntarily medicated to restore his competency. The decision was reaffirmed by an appeals court.

The Colorado public defender’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.