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April 25, 2015

November 27, 2015: Planned Parenthood Shooting

Background

  • Colorado is a state that has seen it’s fair share of mass shootings that have shocked and stunned people in America.  One of the most infamous and saddening mass shootings that has occurred in Colorado’s history is that of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. This event is considered one of the worst mass shootings in the United State’s history.

  • Another mass shooting occurred in Aurora, Colorado when a gunman entered a midnight screening at a local movie theater and killed 12 people. 

  • Sadly, on November 27, 2015 Colorado experienced another deadly mass shooting. On the morning of Black Friday, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado was running as usual.  Some time after 11:30 am, 911 calls were received by local dispatchers reporting that a man with an assault-style rifle had opened fire outside the clinic.

  • The gunman opened fire on civilians, who were in the parking lot of the shopping center where the Planned Parenthood clinic was located.

 

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  • The quick action of first responders helped to protect nearby shoppers, who were told to lock themselves in-doors, as well as motorists who were told to stay away from the area.  

  • Hostages were trapped inside the clinic for approximately six hours while the gunman was trapped outside by police officers for the duration of the attack. However, he eventually managed to make his way into the waiting room of the clinic.  A SWAT team had to resort to ramming through the front doors with a BearCat armored vehicle, at which time the suspect finally surrendered. Victims still had to wait for approximately an hour longer before officers were able to give them a signal that it was safe to evacuate the building.

  •  The gunman was later identified as 57-year-old North Carolina native Robert Lewis Dear. Dear is evangelical Christian and was reported to have referenced the recent controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood at his arrest. The controversy that appears to have been the catalyst for Dear’s actions stems from a number of doctored videos created by anti-abortion groups that surfaced last summer.  These videos allegedly showed a Planned Parenthood clinic discussing the use of fetal organs. The controversy ignited protests outside of Planned Parenthood locations around the country and lead to congress to pass a vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

  • Dear is currently in prison and will be having a mental health competency exam soon, as he has had multiple outbursts in court and elected to represent himself.

 

Death and Injury

  •  During the attack, there were 11 people injured and three people who lost their lives 

  •  Of the three people who were killed during the attack, one of them was one of the University of Colorado campus police officers named Garrett Swasey. Swasey was a 44-year-old father of two and was one of the first responding officers to the scene.  Another victim who tragically lost their life at the hands of the gunman was Ke'Arre Stewart, a 29-year-old veteran who was also a father of two. Stewart was accompanying a friend to the clinic when he was shot by the gunman in the parking lot. Despite his injury, Stewart ran inside Planned Parenthood to warn everyone about the shooter outside. The final victim who was fatally wounded in the attack was 36-year-old mother of two Jenifer Markovsky. Markovsky was also at the clinic that day to accompany a friend.

     

 
Psychological Impact

  • Mass shootings have immediate and long-term psychological impact on individuals, families, and communities. Children of parents who have experienced a violent attack, or have parents who work in field where they constantly see victims of mass shootings, have been reported to have higher levels of psychopathology. 

  • Traumas such as the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting could be considered “mass traumas” because of the wide reaching psychological impact it can have on a community or a population. According to Littleton, Kumpula, and Orcutt (2011), studies conducted about mass traumas have found that “many individuals experience significant distress following these events, such as the development of posttraumatic stress disorder.” 

  • News media coverage of a mass shooting can have a large-scale, long-term impact on society.  Those who commit acts of mass violence are often perpetuated as having a mental illness, whether this has been confirmed or not. Constant focus on mental illness and its relation to violent acts after a mass trauma, such as the Colorado Springs shooting, maintains a negative stereotype of those who suffer from a mental illness. The fear of the mentally ill that is created through news media coverage of instances of mass violence upholds stigma towards mental illness in our society.  This stigma in turn creates long-term psychological impact on those with a mental illness who feel afraid to seek help or address their own psychological distress.

  • Research has shown that those affected by a mass shooting who engage in high levels of avoidance based coping skills have higher levels of psychological distress. 

     

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