Suspected Black Friday gunman accused of violence before

The suspected gunman in Friday’s mass shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood has been accused of violence in the past.

Robert Dear, 57, was arrested in 1992 in South Carolina, on a charge of criminal sexual conduct after a woman said he put a knife to her neck, forced her into her apartment and sexually assaulted her, according to ABC News. No records show how the case was ultimately handled.

Investigators said Dear told them he knew the woman and had consensual sex with her.

Divorce records obtained by KRDO NewsChannel 13 show Dear’s ex-wife accused him of physical and emotional abuse, saying she feared for her safety.

She alleges Dear had a gambling problem and threw her around the room by her hair and bear her head on the floor.

Pete Klismet, a retired FBI profiler, hostage negotiator and author of the “FBI Diary” series told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he wasn’t surprised at Dear’s apparently violent past.

“It would almost shock me if there was not some history of violence of some sort in his past,” Klismet said. “When something like this happens, there is generally a track record behind them.”

The problem, Klismet said, is though there may have been red flags in his past, it’s difficult to know if there were warning signs specifically for the Black Friday shooting.

“I’m going to be most interested in seeing what his life was about in the past 25 years. What did he do? Where did he work? What kind of problems did he have in the workplace, if any?” Klismet said.

Klismet also noted that Dear’s age does not fit the profile of a mass shooter. At 57 years old, Dear is outside of the 30- to 50-year-old age range of most mass shooters.

Investigators say Dear opened fire in and around the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, killing three people and injuring nine others.