Police have released a photo of the man arrested for allegedly shooting dead three people and wounding nine others in an attack on a Colorado family planning center.
Robert Lewis Dear, 57, from South Carolina was being questioned by police of Colorado Springs, who are still trying to determine the motive for yesterday’s attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic.
President Barack Obama on Saturday condemned the attack, saying “enough was enough”.Two civilians and a police officer were allegedly killed by the gunman, who surrendered after a five-hour stand off with police.
The dead policeman was identified as Garrett Swasey, 44, a campus officer at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs who had raced to the scene of the shooting.
The gunman entered the clinic with what police described as a “long weapon” and opened fire from a window. Several news reports, including CNN, said the attacker appeared to be armed with an AK-47-type rifle.
Colorado police chief Peter Carey said the situation was heartbreaking.”I was able to spend a little bit of time at several of the hospitals with our injured officers as well as some of the victims of this thing,” he said.
“All I can say is my heart’s broken. This is a really really tough situation for a lot of people in our community and the community at large. “It is still unclear whether the clinic was the shooter’s target.
Abortion is one of many services Planned Parenthood provides for women, and the association has become a lightning rod for criticism by social conservatives.
PHOTO: The suspected gunman has been taken into police custody. (Reuters: Rick Wilking)
Enough is enough: Obama The attack, one day after Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, is the latest incident to shine a spotlight on gun violence in the US.
Mr Obama used the incident to highlight the need for greater gun control. “We have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period,” Mr Obama said in a statement.
Former FBI special agent Steve Moore told CNN the shooter’s motivations are clear.”Well it appears to me to have all of the ear marks of a domestic terrorism attack,” he said.
“You have a potential political target. You have an abortion clinic and … I mean, it’s almost like if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s going to be a duck. It sure appears to be domestic terrorism.”
‘I looked at him and then the shots came through the glass. Survivor, Ozy Licano was sitting in a parked truck outside the Planned Parenthood building where the attack occurred.
“I tried to get out of my car and run and I thought about that and I said no. And I got back into the car, started it, put it in reverse, started backing out, and then he was in front of me,” Mr Licano said.”And he was aiming at me, and I just hit the gas.
And he started shooting, and I was looking at his face.”I think I had 10 seconds, five to 10 seconds to look at him, and then the shots came through the glass and then I started bleeding.”