Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood accused shooter dies in custody

Updated at 3:33 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.

Robert Dear, the man who was suspected of killing three people and injuring nine others in 2015 at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, died Saturday at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.

The 67-year-old was in the process of being civilly committed, a court order that would have sent him to a federal mental health facility for treatment.

In 2015, he was charged in state court with first-degree murder. Court-ordered mental competency evaluations found he was not competent to stand trial. In 2016, Dear was moved to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. 

He faced 179 state charges and 68 federal charges. 

Thursday, Nov. 27 will mark 10 years since the shooting. The three victims killed in the attack include Jennifer Markovsky and Ke’Arre Stewart, both of whom were at the clinic to support others, and Police Officer Garrett Swasey.

In the years since Dear’s federal indictment in 2019, the court repeatedly tried to get him to a competent state so that he could help in his own defense at trial. 

In 2022, a judge ordered him to be forcibly mediated, which he appealed. The order was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2024.

Even with the forced medication, Dear was not brought back to competency.

Dear admitted guilt in several instances. In one courtroom, he declared himself a “warrior for the babies” and even said, “I'm guilty. There's no trial.” But he never made an official plea due to his competency. 

“He has expressed various delusions openly in court, and I would say this is a case where he understands that he's on trial, he's admitted to the killings, but he is too delusional to actually help in his own defense,” said Jonathon Booth, associate professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School. 

CPR News reached out to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri. Dear’s cause of death has not been made available. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct date of the shooting.