Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter mentally incompetent

(AP) — A man who acknowledged killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic is mentally incompetent to continue with his criminal case, a judge ruled Wednesday, stalling the proceedings and potentially setting the stage for a mental health defense.

Dear told people in phone calls from jail that he believes his attorneys' attempt to have him declared incompetent is part of a plot to diminish his message opposing abortion.

[...] the overwhelming majority of defendants initially determined to be incompetent are eventually able to understand the proceedings and stand trial, said Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who has conducted competency exams but is not involved in Dear's case.

"In a case of this magnitude when a defendant is initially found incompetent to stand trial and is then restored to competency, there is a strong possibility that there will be a mental health defense," Pitt said.

Dear also told investigators he put glue in the locks at an abortion clinic when he lived in South Carolina, a common protest technique among activists trying to shut down such facilities.