COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The admitted gunman in an attack on the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in 2015 died in a federal facility over the weekend. Robert Dear was 67 years old.
Thursday will mark exactly 10 years since Dear opened fire and killed three people: University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) Police Officer Garrett Swasey, Iraq War Veteran Ke’arre Stewart, and a wife and mother of two, Jennifer Markovksy.
Dear’s criminal cases in both state and federal case were stalled over concerns of his mental competency.
Dan May, the former 4th Judicial District Attorney who was originally one of the prosecutors on the case said he was driving in his car when he heard the news Tuesday.
“I heard it on the radio, and I got to say, it was kind of shocked. I kind of did a double take,” May said, “My first thought is I really felt sorry for the victims. You know, in the end, he's exactly where he ought to be.”
Details of the case have been limited in the last decade as Dear’s competency was up for debate, but with Dear’s death those details are coming out.
Dear never entered a plea in the case. In his first in-person court appearance news reports said he shouted out “I’m guilty. There’s no trial!”
“I think we expressed our frustrations in court also pretty consistently that this case should have been moving along,” May said.
Victims and survivors learned the news this week. Ozy Licano, who was in the parking lot of the Planned Parenthood and survived the shooting said the news gave him a “sense of relief”.
In the last decade Licano said he’s been angry the case didn’t make it to trial or that there wasn’t a harsher sentence.
“I just didn’t like the idea that he could breathe a while he decided others couldn’t,” Licano said.
In the last decade he said the shooting as been “a dark moment in the back of my life”. He’s wrestled with survivor’s guilt and wondering how he survived.
Licano was getting ready to run an errand from his home in Otero County to Colorado Springs when his neighbors said they needed a ride to an appointment at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. He was inside his car when the gunfire broke out.
“I saw him walking up, just marching like a robot,” Licano said, “I was confused and I kept hearing the shots inside.”
He got out of the car trying to figure out what was going on, and then got back inside, and backed out of the parking lot.
“As I turned, there he was,” Licano said, “he was looking at me and he was aiming and then he just started firing and I just gunned it and I was able to get out and go.”
Licano’s car had multiple bullet holes, he said one bullet narrowly missed him.
“Why does he deserve forgiveness? I mean, I can forgive, but I'm never going to forget,” Licano said, “I mean, why does he get to decide what he did that day and justify it the way he did? Why can't we do what we want to do and decide? And just like he did. You know, I don't think he had the right to do what he did. I don't, you know, I I'm not rejoicing, but I'm glad it's over. You know, I really am. “
Dear’s competency gave May frustration throughout the case. He said at one point Dear was teaching what May called “competency classes” at the Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo.
“When someone is incompetent, the state hospital will actually have education classes for them to see if, as part of their process of trying to return them to competency,” May said, “Dear at one point was teaching the class, and we put that on even as evidence at one of hearings, we felt he was confident enough to go ahead and make decisions on this case.”
When asked if it was a regret of his leaving office that this case did not make it to trial May said “Absolutely”.
“I thought it would get to trial,” May said, “Robert Dear always wanted to plead guilty, this was kind of an odd case that he came in day one wanting to plead guilty. Willing to take the penalties associated with that.”
Paul Markovsky, who lost his wife Jennifer in the shooting said he felt it was “a shame that [the case] dragged on for so long.”
“I would say I’m closer to closure, but you know there’s never going to be real closure, with someone like this who can’t even acknowledge what he’s done,” Markovsky said.
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