Alleged Colorado Planned Parenthood gunman Robert Dear is 'not competent' to stand trial, judge rules

Robert Dear's defense says he believes that the FBI is after him

AP

A Colorado judge ruled that Robert Lewis Dear Jr - the man accused of killing three and injuring nine in a shooting at an area Planned Parenthood - is mentally unfit to stand trial.

Colorado 4th District Judge Gilbert Martinez presided over Tuesday’s competency hearing and took a day to reach a decision about Dear’s mental state.

Dear is being sent the Colorado Mental Health Center to receive treatment, the Denver Post reported. The hospital has to send a mental health review to the court by 11 August.

The court saw testimony from a doctor who said Dear, 58, suffered from delusions, including his insistence that the federal government is after him. But the Washington Post reported that a court-ordered psychological evaluation deemed him fit to stand trial. A detective also testified that Dear seemed lucid during an interview and said he did not want to plead insanity.

KKTV reported that Dear made outbursts during the hearing, saying that “bad things” happened to people who “made fun of Obama”. Judge Martinez did not permit Dear to testify, rejecting the request of prosecutors.

Dear, who called himself a “warrior for the babies” during a December hearing, allegedly attacked a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic on 27 November. Upon his arrest, documents show that Dear told police that he would be “met by all the aborted foetuses at the gates of heaven and they would thank him for what he did because his actions saved lives of other unborn foetuses”.

He faces 179 charges connected to the shooting rampage, including murder, 131 counts of attempted murder, assault, burglary and criminal mischief.