Robert Dear, the man charged in connection with a 2015 mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, has died.
Dear, 67, died while in federal custody on Saturday, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate records.
The Associated Press, The New York Times and Reuters reported that Dear died while receiving treatment at a medical facility for federal prisoners in Springfield, Mo., on Saturday. The outlets reported that he died of natural causes. A spokesperson with the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Dear’s death on Wednesday but did not confirm the cause.
Dear was charged with killing three people and injuring nine others during the Nov. 27, 2015, mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., which led to a tense standoff with police lasting nearly six hours.
Officers ultimately took Dear into custody after ramming an armored vehicle into the building to evacuate 24 people who were still inside.
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According to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case, Dear told police he targeted the clinic because he was “upset” that Planned Parenthood performed abortions and alleged “the selling of baby parts.”
The victims included Army veteran Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, a father of two; Jenifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who was accompanying friends to the clinic; and Garrett Swasey, a campus police officer who responded after hearing reports of an active shooter at the nearby facility, according to the AP.
Dear had remained in custody since the day of the shooting but was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial.
In 2016, state courts in Colorado ruled him mentally unfit after two state-appointed psychologists diagnosed him with a paranoid delusional disorder and concluded he could not understand the facts or reality of his case.
Prosecutors later sought to pursue the case at the federal level in 2019, but in 2021 a U.S. district judge again ruled that Dear was not competent to stand trial.
