Robert Lewis Dear, a 57-year-old man from North Carolina, allegedly has been identified as the gunman who murdered a police officer and two civilians at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado, according to MSN News.

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The altercation lasted more than four hours and left nine people within the vicinity injured.

Dear was taken into police custody upon his surrender on Friday, according to the city mayor and the police.

Police officers revealed the identity of the suspect to media outlets on Friday. The identity of Dear was confirmed by the city of Colorado Springs and a booking photo of him that was taken at the El Paso criminal justice center was released.

No other details have been made available to the press and the main cause of what triggered the incident is still unknown. The authorities are still investigating the incident.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy that occurred here in Colorado Springs today," said Mayor Suthers.

Mayor Suthers said the authorities are not ready to rule out a possible motive from the tragedy. However, people can create 'inferences' from where the altercation took place.

After the announcement of the suspect's identity, President Barack Obama expressed concern about the 'easy accessibility' of weapons to people who are not capable of handling them, according to the Guardian.

"Enough is enough," said Obama, via an official statement released by the White House.

A 44-year-old University police officer named Garrett Swasey was one of the casualties in the shootout. He was the one of the first officers to respond at the scene since the Planned Parenthood Clinic was only a 10 minute drive away from the police station.

The names of the killed civilians are yet to be released.

Planned Parenthood has been under fire recently due to moral and ethical concerns. Republicans in Congress even suggested withholding funding for the clinic and the issue was also brought up during a 2016 Presidential campaign.

Planned Parenthood, who specialize more on women's reproductive health, have denied any misconduct by its employees.

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