Accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear is incompetent to stand trial, a Colorado judge ruled Wednesday.
Dear, 57, is charged with 179 felony counts including murder and attempted murder in the November 27, 2015, shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
The ruling puts the criminal case on hold while Dear undergoes treatment at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, Colorado court public information officer Rob McCallum said.
Fourth Judicial District Judge Gilbert Martinez ordered Dear to undergo a mental competency evaluation in December after his public defender raised questions about his competency. Dear has repeatedly interrupted proceedings with outbursts, shouting at his attorneys and the judge, muttering to himself and declaring his guilt.
Dear told the court in a December 9 hearing, “I am a warrior for the babies.” In a subsequent hearing Dear tried to fire his court-appointed lawyer, who also defended Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes. Dear indicated he would not cooperate with the mental evaluation, telling Martinez “I’m not going to say one word to them.”
As he was escorted out of the courtroom on Wednesday, Dear yelled at Martinez, calling him a “filthy animal,” according to CNN affiliate KKTV.
‘You shouldn’t have come here today’
Dear entered the clinic before noon on the day of the shooting, police said. He was wearing a homemade ballistic vest made of duct tape and silver coins and carrying four SKS rifles, according to police documents.
He approached his first victim outside the clinic parking lot with a message.
“You shouldn’t have come here today,” he said. Police said he then shot her her multiple times.
From inside the clinic he held authorities at bay for nearly six hours, killing one police officer and two civilians before he was arrested, police said.
Dear told a detective that he dreamed of being met in heaven by aborted fetuses who would thank him for his actions, according to documents released by investigators. He called President Barack Obama “the antichrist” and told investigators he “thought highly” of a man accused of killing an abortion provider and his bodyguard in Florida.
Dear is scheduled for a review on August 11, McCallum said.
