By Steve Gorman
DENVER (Reuters) – Robert Dear, the self-proclaimed “warrior for babies” who was accused of killing three people and wounding nine others in a 2015 shooting at an abortion clinic in Colorado, has died at a prison medical center.
Dear, 67, who the courts had repeatedly deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, died Saturday at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, according to information released Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He had remained in custody since his arrest immediately after the beating on November 27, 2015.
The inmate record gave no details about the circumstances of Dear’s death. Bureau of Prisons officials did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for information.
The Denver Post quoted bureau spokesperson Randilee Giamusso as saying that Dear’s death was “preliminarily linked to natural causes” and that prison officials followed what the newspaper characterized as “advanced medical orders” before he died.
State and federal prosecutors had sought for a decade to convict him of the attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic, which provided a range of reproductive health services, including abortions.
Authorities said he opened fire with a rifle outside the facility before charging inside, surrendering after a five-hour siege.
Dear admitted to the mass shooting in several state court hearings, including when he proclaimed himself a “warrior for babies,” a reference to his anti-abortion beliefs. Federal prosecutors said Dear traveled to the clinic with a dozen firearms, propane tanks and more than 500 rounds of ammunition.
After evaluating Dear in 2016, two state court-appointed psychologists diagnosed him with paranoid delusional disorder that they said rendered him mentally unfit to stand trial. The state court judge then ruled him incompetent, finding that while Dear could understand the factual basis of the case, he could not significantly assist in his own defense.
In 2019, Dear was indicted in federal court, which prosecutors hoped would advance the case. But in September 2021, a US district judge again declared the defendant mentally incompetent.
Authorities tried to restore Dear’s mental health while he remained in custody. As recently as June 2024, a federal appeals court ruled that he could be given anti-psychotic medication against his will in hopes of establishing competency to stand trial.
At the time, government experts estimated that the medication had a chance of success of more than 70%. Defense experts said the drugs were unlikely to work, citing Dear’s age and the long duration of untreated psychosis.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Additional writing and reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Kate Mayberry)