Police officer among three people shot dead by Gunman at US clinic

A gunman killed three people including a policeman in a rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the US state of Colorado.

Police officer among three people shot dead by Gunman at US clinic

A gunman killed three people including a policeman in a rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the US state of Colorado.

The killer was arrested after a shoot-out with police during an hours-long stand-off at the Colorado Springs clinic that saw him wound nine other people, including five officers.

The officer killed was 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, who had served six years with the University of Colorado force.

Police said the injured people were in good condition, and the gunman was in custody. His name was not immediately released.

The authorities have not found a motive and do not know whether the shooter had any connection to Planned Parenthood, a national women’s health care provider that offers abortions at some clinics.

“We don’t have any information on this individual’s mentality, or his ideas or ideology,” Lieutenant Catherine Buckley said.

Planned Parenthood said it did not know the full circumstances or motives behind the attack, or whether the organisation was the target.

A number of people were evacuated during the stand-off – some wrapped in blankets in the blowing snow – to a nearby Veterans Administration clinic.

For several hours, the firing of a long gun was the only indication police had that the shooter was in the building, Lt Buckley said. Officers finally made voice contact by shouting to him and convinced him to surrender, she said.

Video from The Denver Post showed a tall man in a white T-shirt being led away by police as snow fell on the frigid evening.

With the immediate threat over, authorities turned their attention to inspecting unspecified items the gunman left outside the building and carried inside in bags.

Three officers were shot while responding just before noon local time to the initial report of shots fired. More than two hours later, the gunman shot another officer in an exchange with police inside the clinic.

The suspect surrendered about five hours after entering the building.

The shots sent people inside the clinic racing for cover. Jennifer Motolinia hid behind a table inside the clinic and called her brother, Joan, who said he heard multiple gunshots in the background.

“She was telling me to take care of her babies because she could get killed,” Joan Motolinia said of his sister.

He rushed to the clinic but was frustrated because a police barricade kept him from getting close.

“People were shooting for sure. I heard someone shooting. There was a lot of gunfire. She was calm, she was trying to hide from those people,” he said.

Police cordoned off the clinic, nearby medical offices and a shopping centre. Authorities ordered everyone in the area to take shelter where they were.

Denise Speller, manager of a nearby hair salon, said she heard as many as 20 gunshots in less than five minutes.

She told The Gazette newspaper that she saw two officers near a bank branch, not far from the Planned Parenthood facility.

One of the officers appeared to fall to the ground and the other officer knelt down to help and then tried to get the officer to safety behind a patrol car, she said. Another officer told Ms Speller to seek shelter inside the building.

“We’re still pretty freaked out,” she said by phone while still trapped inside the salon. “We can’t stop shaking.”

Shelley Satulla said she saw five or six people put on stretchers and placed in ambulances lined up next to King Soopers shopping centre near the clinic.

The location of the shooting is less than 6 miles from the street where a man shot and killed two of three people before dying in a gun battle with police on Halloween day.

A law enforcement official said the gunman had been identified as Robert Lewis Dear, from North Carolina.

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