The Planned Parenthood Shooter Shouted That He's a 'Warrior for the Babies' in Court

Robert Lewis Dear, the man charged with murdering three people and wounding nine more at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado late last month, erupted several times during his first in-person court appearance Wednesday. The 57-year-old attempted to silence his public defender and expressed a desire to publicize not only his guilt but his anti-abortion views, which it is now quite clear were what motivated his mass shooting.

"I'm a warrior for the babies," Dear shouted during the court appearance, where he was being advised of the 179 charges he faces, including first-degree murder. "You'll never know what I saw in that clinic. Atrocities. The babies."

If there was any lingering doubt about Dear's reasons for going on a rampage that killed a police officer, an Army veteran, and a mother of two and wounded nine others, it was promptly extinguished Wednesday. Authorities had previously reported Dear muttered "no more baby parts" upon his arrest, and it later came out through one of his three ex-wives that he'd vandalized an abortion clinic decades ago. What's more, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Dear asked someone for directions to the Planned Parenthood location before he opened fire there.

During the hearing Wednesday, Dear also repeatedly attempted to silence Daniel King, the lawyer who defended James Holmes—the mass shooter who was sentenced to life in prison for his 2012 attack on a Colorado movie theater. "Do you know who this lawyer is?" Dear asked in court, according to the Associated Press. "He's the lawyer for the Batman shooter. Who drugged him all up. And he wants to do that to me."

Dear has not yet been asked to file a plea, although he did say in court that he would not be meeting with his lawyer again.

"I'm guilty," he said. "There's no trial."

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