It certainly appears that Robert Lewis Dear, the man held in custody for terrorizing a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic, was inspired by David Daleiden's inflammatory rhetoric against Planned Parenthood and in particular, his false claim that they were "harvesting baby parts."
Robert Lewis Dear, a North Carolina native who was living in a trailer in Colorado, made statements to police Friday at the scene of the Colorado Springs clinic and in interviews that law enforcement sources described as rantings.
In one statement, made after the suspect was taken in for questioning, Dear said "no more baby parts" in reference to Planned Parenthood, two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case told NBC News.
Yes, he was a right winger, too.
But the sources stressed that Dear said many things to law enforcement and the extent to which the "baby parts" remark played into any decision to target the Planned Parenthood office was not yet clear. He also mentioned President Barack Obama in statements.
It was a bit more than a mention, according to Buzzfeed.
Zigmond Post, who told BuzzFeed News he was a neighbor of Dear’s in Hartsel, said the man once gave him anti-Obama pamphlets.
Post said he once went to Dear’s home to retrieve two dogs that had gotten loose. “We were there for a minute and the guy was already handing us anti-Obama pamphlets,” he said. According to Post, Dear said “Obama was ruining the country and needed to be impeached.”
I'm fairly certain he didn't invent that notion on his own. Despite accounts of a fairly rough life in his North Carolina cabin, reports indicate he moved to Colorado with a woman he'd met online, which suggests there's an online footprint in social media yet to be discovered.
And yet. This is the headline over on CNN.com right now. Planned Parenthood Shooting: Gunman Named But Motive Unknown
It's possible Dear didn't really give a damn about Planned Parenthood or baby parts. But all it takes is some paranoia, which he did have, and some inflammatory rhetoric, which is all over the Internet, right wing news sites, and Fox News, for him to zero in on that as a target.
Now three people are dead including a policeman and two civilians. Others are injured and terrified, and what do you see all over the right wing blogs? Celebrations. Seriously.
