Colorado mayor: Clinic shootings appear to be domestic terrorism

Colorado Springs, Colo., Mayor John Suthers said in an interview Sunday that the fatal shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood clinic in his town appears to be an act of domestic terrorism.

“We have, Martha, something that occurs quite a bit. We have a person that’s pretty much off the grid and acting for whatever motivation, very hard to ferret out those folks,” Suthers told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

“You know, I — I was an attorney general that was a head of a committee looking at things that are consistent about these kinds of incidents,” he added. “And one of the things we don’t do very well is identify these people, sometimes with mental health problems, and prevent their access to weapons.”

Suthers said it appears that Planned Parenthood was targeted by suspect Robert Lewis Dear, although the mayor would not discuss a motive.

“Well, Martha, the police and the prosecutor have not officially released anything about the motivation. As a former District Attorney, I’m very respectful of that and I will wait, you know, the release of official information before we’ll comment on the motivation.”

“It was a kind of unusual situation in the fact that he gave himself up alive,” Suthers added.

“Martha, I was in the command center watching this unfold, and the police just did a fantastic job,” he said. “From the command center, they were able to monitor security cameras in the center and advise the squad officers inside about the movement of the perpetrator. And that sort of coordination, they were, you know, e-mailing diagrams about the building inside to the SWAT team, and that coordination I’m absolutely certain saved a number of lives, because they were able to get people out of the building that were in areas the perpetrator was not.”