Admitted Planned Parenthood Attacker: 'I Might Have Saved A Thousand' Babies
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - The man who admits to killing three people during an attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs called his actions "spur of the moment" in a conversation over the phone from jail with CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger.
Robert Lewis Dear, 57, claims the FBI has been following him ever since he criticized it for its role in the Waco, Texas siege 22 years ago. His own attorneys have suggested he take a competency exam, but he claimed he is coherent, sane and wants to represent himself and plead guilty.
Dear complained openly in court that he is being silenced. Records in the case have been sealed. By phone from jail he claimed he had been followed by the FBI for decades, including from his trailer home the day of the armed assault at Planned Parenthood.
"When I got to Planned Parenthood, when I busted in that door on the side all the people were gone, so they had been tipped off by the FBI or somebody," Dear told Sallinger. "All the employees had gotten out the back."
For more than five hours a standoff took place after three people were killed. The three people killed in the attack were Garrett Swasey, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officer; Ke'Arre Stewart, an Iraq War veteran; and Jennifer Markovsky, a mother of two.
"Mr. Dear, you killed people who were not working for Planned Parenthood. How do you feel about that?" Sallinger asked.
"They were there to get abortions, yeah," he replied.
But two were there accompanying others. The third was Swasey, a responding police officer. Sallinger asked if he felt anything was accomplished by his actions.
"They got 4,000 babies get aborted every day. I guarantee you they had a lot of cancellations and I might have saved a thousand," Dear replied.
What happened brought the abortion debate to new heights of violence by Dear with no apologies at all.
"Apologies? No, I say that they are going to execute me, that will be apology enough," he said.
He said during the standoff he flipped a credit card to decide if he should give up, which he did.
The FBI said it could not comment on Dear's claims due to a court order.
