CLUES?

PP Suspect Was Accused of Animal Cruelty

Had history of disputes.

The suspect accused of barricading himself inside a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in a standoff with police that left three dead (a police officer and two civilians) had a history of disputes with neighbors and relatives. As The Daily Beast’s Samantha Allen reported, Robert Lewis Dear, 57, was once charged with animal cruelty in the pellet gun shooting of a neighbor’s dog (the dog survived and Dear was found not guilty). He was also charged with being a peeping tom and leering into a female neighbor's home, but this charge was dismissed. The owner of the dog reported to police two years after the pellet gun incident that Dear had threatened him with bodily harm after he thought the neighbor pushed his motorcycle to the ground. And Dear’s ex-wife, Pam, reported in 1997 that Dear “took her keys from her and locked her out of their residence,” then “hit her and pushed her out the window” when she tried to gain access that way.

A neighbor of Dear’s, James Russell of Black Mountain, Colorado, told the New York Daily News that Dear was somewhat scatter-brained and tends to ramble when speaking. “If you talked to him, nothing with him was very cognitive—topics all over place,” Russell said. Police are still working to determine a motive for Friday’s rampage.