Robert Dear’s alleged Planned Parenthood assault bears striking resemblance to Florida anti-abortion murders

Robert Dear had two inspirations to his Colorado Springs attack: Paul Hill, right, and Michael Griffin, left.

Robert Dear idolized the anti-abortion killers whose attacks in the 1990s inspired a deadly rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic, according to investigators.
The madman accused of orchestrating a one-man assault against a Colorado Springs facility spewed the familiar rhetoric that carried Paul Hill to lethal injection and Michael Griffin to a life behind bars. Both men were responsible for killing doctors at Florida abortion clinics decades before Dear’s diabolical plan unfolded two days after Thanksgiving.
Search warrants unveiled Monday afternoon reveal a disturbing insight into Dear’s anti-abortion obsession that simmered for years — starting in 2009 — before boiling into a deadly gun battle that killed University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Officer Garrett Swasey, Ke’Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky on Nov. 27, 2015.





In the interview with Dear, investigators learned their suspected killer “thought very highly” of Hill. That admiration was confirmed in a 2009 email sent to his son painting Hill as a “hero.”
Inside the correspondence was a link plugging a website dedicated to Hill titled the Army of God.
Hill was an anti-abortion protester-turned-assassin executed at Florida State Prison nearly a decade after he murdered Dr. John Britton and a volunteer escort, retired Air Force Lt. Col James Barrett, in 1994.

PETER COSGROVE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paul Hill was remorseless in the killings of two men outside a Florida abortion clinic and hoped it inspired future attacks.

Hill, who was excommunicated from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, was a weekly sight outside Ladies Center in Pensacola, typically hoisting his “execute abortionists” sign high above his head for patients and staffers to see. On July 29, he carried out its message.
He brandished a firearm and opened fire, riddling Barrett’s pickup truck with bullets and killing the pair as they drove up to the clinic. Barrett’s wife, June, was also wounded in the assault.

MARK FOLEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Anti-abortion activist Paul Hill, right, is shown months before his July 1994 holding a “execute abortionists” sign in Pensacola.

His actions were admittedly inspired by Michael Griffin, who is serving a life sentence at Milton’s Blackwater River Correctional Facility in the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn.
Griffin reportedly yelled “Don’t kill any more babies” before shooting Gunn to death at point-blank range during an anti-abortion protest staged by former Ku Klux Klan member John Burt outside the Pensacola Women’s Medical Services clinic.
Three bullets struck Gunn as he walked into the clinic. He later died at a nearby hospital.

MARK FOLEY/Associated Press

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Federation comments with the son of Dr. David Gunn, David Gunn Jr., at her side after Michael Griffin was found guilty in 1994.

After the shooting, Griffin stormed past his marching protesters and confronted a police officer called to the clinic to keep an eye on the protesters.
“I just shot a man back of the clinic,” Griffin reportedly told the officer. “You need to call an ambulance.”
The following year, Hill went forward with his attack. As police officers apprehended Hill shortly after the shooting, he said “I know one thing. No innocent babies are going to be killed in that clinic today.”

STEVE MAWYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paul Hill riddled James Barrett’s pickup truck with bullets during his attack outside a Pensacola clinic, an attack that killed Barrett and Dr. John Britton.

Their remarks bear a chilling resemblance to Dear’s rants and raves as police stuffed him into the back of a police cruiser. The wide-eyed gunman “began yelling out statements about the killing of babies and ‘no more baby parts,’” investigators wrote.
Both Dear and Hill believed their actions had prevented abortions at the clinic.
Dear had “committed acts” against abortion clinics in South Carolina before going west to Colorado, he said.
He poured glue into the locks of a local abortion clinic believing it would prevent abortions from taking place on that day.
He was ultimately “pleased” with his violent rampage because he thought it would also stop abortions from taking place at the Colorado Springs clinic. According to Pro-Choice Colorado’s website, the facility offers surgical abortions up to 17 weeks and medical abortions