Three people were killed after a gunman opened fire at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in a six-hour standoff Friday.
Two civilians and a police officer died, Colorado Springs police said.
The slain officer, who officials have not named, worked for the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs and was on campus about 10 miles away when the shooting broke out. He went to the scene “in support of an officer under fire,” the school’s chancellor said in a statement.
[Breaking news alert, posted at 8:30 p.m. ET Friday]
A police officer shot during Friday’s siege at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs has died, the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police said on Twitter.
Planned Parenthood officials believe all staff and patients from the are accounted for after Friday’s shooting at the facility, said Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
“We’re still reaching out to confirm individuals, how they are. I believe no one of our staff was severely injured. I also believe at this time that none of our patients were injured,” she told CNN.
[Breaking news update, posted at 7:05 p.m. ET Friday]
Police have detained the suspected gunman accused of opening fire inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the city’s mayor said.
“The perpetrator is in custody. The situation has been resolved. There’s no continuing peril to the citizens of Colorado Springs,” Mayor John Suthers told reporters Friday. “But there’s a huge crime scene that has to be processed. We have to determine exactly how many victims there are. We’ll be reporting on that in the near future.”
Eleven people have been transported to local hospitals, according to Colorado Springs Police Lt. Catherine Buckley. Five of those transported are police officers from various responding agencies, Buckley said.
[Previous story, posted at 6:50 p.m. ET Friday]
Police say they’re evacuating a Planned Parenthood building in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a gunman has fired at officers.
“There are an unknown amount of casualties at this point,” Lt. Catherine Buckley told reporters around 4 p.m. (6 p.m. ET), adding that shots had been fired shortly before she spoke.
Even once gunfire stops, investigators will be at the scene for hours, she said, checking out items the gunman brought with him to make sure they aren’t explosives.
“We don’t know what they are,” she said. “We know that the suspect brought several items with him, and some of those are inside the Planned Parenthood building and some of them are out front of it.”
Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect inside the building but were not in voice contact with him, she said.
At least four officers were injured in the shooting, she said. Local hospital officials said at least nine people were taken to medical facilities in the area. Details about their injuries were not immediately available
The shooting, which was first reported inside the building around 11:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), also left a nearby shopping center on lockdown as police searched for the gunman.
It’s unclear whether there are hostages or whether there’s an additional shooter involved, she said, and authorities have not identified the suspect.
FBI teams were among those responding to the scene, agency spokeswoman Deborah Sherman said.
It was not immediately clear whether Planned Parenthood was the target of the shooting.
Police said the original 911 call reporting the gunman came from the building.
One Planned Parenthood official said the motive behind the attack was unknown, but pointed to what she called a “poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism” as a possible cause.
“We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack,” Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said in a written statement. “We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.”
Witnesses: Police swarmed area
Denise Speller, who works at a nearby salon, said she heard at least 10 gunshots go off and saw a police officer get hit.
“It was terrifying,” she said, adding that it was unclear exactly where the shots were coming from.
Brigitte Wolfe, who said she works in the area of shooting, told CNN that she saw about five officers behind a building with their guns drawn, as well as about three SWAT vehicles and roughly seven police cars from her vantage point in a strip mall that’s across the street from the Planned Parenthood. A grocery store and bank are nearby, Wolfe noted.
Photos taken by Kody Fisher, a reporter with CNN affiliate KXRM, showed an ambulance and, in another photo, at least two police officers crouched behind a patrol car.
Colorado Springs police tweeted that the shooting took place on Centennial Boulevard. A newspaper in the city, The Gazette, reported that traffic was shut down in both directions on that road and that customers were told to stay put in a nearby grocery store and shops.
That sentiment was echoed by Colorado Springs police, who warned around 12:20 p.m. (2:20 p.m. ET) that the area was “not secure” that those in a nearby shopping center should “shelter in place.”
At a grocery store in the shopping center, an intercom announcement told shoppers not to leave.
The city, in the central part of the Colorado, has more than 400,000 residents.
Planned Parenthood: ‘This is a developing situation’
FBI teams were also responding to the shooting, agency spokeswoman Deborah Sherman said.
Officials released few details as the shooting unfolded, saying their focus was getting the situation under control.
“At this time, our concern is for the safety of our patients, staff and law enforcement,” Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, said in a written statement. “This is a developing situation, and we’ll continue to share updates as we have them.”
Planned Parenthood is a national health care provider that delivers reproductive health care and sex education to women and men throughout the United States. The organization runs nearly 700 health centers throughout the United States, according to its website.
The group says each year 2.7 million people in the United States visit its health centers for health care services and information.
