COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. » After a deadly five-hour gun battle at the lone Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, admitted shooter Robert Lewis Dear Jr. told a detective that his dream was to die and enter heaven’s gates, where aborted fetuses “would thank him for what he did because his actions saved lives of other unborn fetuses,” according to long-awaited court documents released today.

Dear also told an investigator that he idolized Paul Hill, who was convicted in the 1994 killing of a Florida abortion provider.

When he entered the clinic on Centennial Boulevard Nov. 27, Dear was armed with four rifles and wore a homemade vest made of silver coins and duct tape, the documents stated. He brought propane tanks in hopes that they’d explode when he shot them, the documents said, but they did not.

After he parked his car in front of the building, he told someone who was in a vehicle that they “shouldn’t have come here today,” the documents said.

In Dear’s 2014 Toyota Tacoma pickup, investigators found several weapons, including two rifles, a shotgun, two pistols, knives, a hatchet and arrow tips, according to the affidavit.

The documents were made available Monday after 4th Judicial District Chief Judge Gilbert Martinez, who is presiding over the Dear case, returned from a vacation.

The judge’s order came after legal pressure applied by attorneys working on behalf of a media coalition that includes The Gazette and a number of national outlets, such as The New York Times, CNN and The Washington Post.

The coalition initially argued that the public has a right to know about allegations related to the attack that killed three people, including a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police officer. When Martinez refused to release the documents initially, the coalition appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Dear, 57, is facing 179 charges related to the attacks, which also wounded nine people. He has proudly proclaimed responsibility for the shootings in court and during interviews with reporters, though he recently complained to The Gazette that he has been overcharged and is innocent of “99 percent” of the counts filed against him.

Dear is scheduled to return to court April 28 for a mental competency hearing.

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©2016 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)