The man accused of opening fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and killing three people said "no more baby parts" while he was being arrested, NBC News and other media reported on Saturday, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
The utterance would appear to be a reference to the controversy surrounding the organization's health services, which include abortion, and its role in delivering fetal tissue to medical researchers.
It could hint at a possible motive for the rampage, though NBC reported that sources said investigators still did not know for certain what motivated the gunman.
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Authorities have not discussed a motive for the attack at the Colorado Springs clinic, which left a police officer and two civilians dead and nine people wounded.
The suspect, identified as Robert Lewis Dear, 57, was taken into custody at the Planned Parenthood clinic and jailed ahead of a court appearance scheduled for Monday.
It was not immediately clear if Dear, who surrendered to police after a nearly five-hour standoff, had retained an attorney.
The shooting was believed to be the first fatal attack at an abortion provider in the United States in six years, although it was not known if it was related to the clinic's abortion services. The Colorado Springs center has been repeatedly targeted for protests by anti-abortion activists.
Planned Parenthood came under fire this year after officials of the organization were secretly recorded by an anti-abortion group discussing how to obtain human tissue from aborted fetuses.
The videos triggered protests over Planned Parenthood's role in such activities. The organization has strongly denied doing anything illegal or unethical.
Items left at scene 'no longer a threat'
The dead policeman was Garrett Swasey, 44, a campus police officer for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs who joined city police in responding to the first reports of shots fired, authorities said. The dead civilians were not named.
Swasey, married and the father of two young children, was a former figure skater who served as an elder at Hope Chapel, the Colorado Springs church said on its website.
Planned Parenthood in recent years moved its Colorado Springs clinic to new quarters on the city's northwest side - a facility that opponents of abortion had called a "fortress."
The national non-profit group, devoted to providing a range of reproductive health services, including abortions, has come under renewed pressure this year from conservatives in Congress seeking to cut off federal funding for the organization.
At least eight workers at clinics providing abortions have been killed since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation - most recently in 2009, when doctor George Tiller was shot to death at church in Wichita, Kansas.
Clinics have reported nearly 7,000 incidents of trespassing, vandalism, arson, death threats, and other forms of violence since then, according to the federation.
As in much of the rest of the country, abortion is a divisive issue in Colorado. Colorado Springs is a hub for conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family that oppose abortion.
The issue figured prominently in attack ads during last year's U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and Republican challenger Cory Gardner, who won the election.
