Three killed, nine injured in Colorado shooting

Three people were shot dead and nine others injured in a shooting on Friday in the city of Colorado Springs, the United States, according to authorities.

After more than five hours of standoff, police arrested a gunman, who stormed a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Colorado Springs and opened fire with a rifle.

Those killed includes one officer and two civilians, Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey told reporters about an hour after the suspect had been captured, adding that all nine surviving victims, five police officers and four civilians, were in good condition at area hospitals.

Colorado Springs Police spokeswoman Lt. Catherine Buckley told local media that later in the afternoon, officers were able to get close enough to the suspect who holed up in a clinic of Colorado Springs’ branch of Planned Parenthood and exchanged gunfire with police. At that point, officers were able to get him to surrender.

The suspect was seen escorted by police out of the clinic in handcuffs just before 5:00 p.m. local time.

The identity and motive of the suspect are not revealed yet. The suspect said he acted alone.

“We do not know about this person’s mentality or ideology,” Buckley said.

About 150 police officers from the city and the state police departments were sent to the scene after gun shots were reported at around 11:30 a.m.

At 2:15 p.m., police tweeted that officers were “encountering gunfire” from a suspect inside the Planned Parenthood building.

More than a dozen police vehicles and ambulances were at the scene. SWAT members managed to evacuate some 20 people from the clinic before the suspect surrendered.