Sheriff: Rep. Giffords was gunman's target
TUCSON, AZ
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Giffords was the target
of a gunman whom he described as mentally unstable and possibly
acting along with an accomplice. He said Giffords was among 13
people wounded in the melee that killed six people, including
Arizona's chief federal judge, a 9-year-old girl and an aide for
the Democratic lawmaker. He said the rampage ended only after two
people tackled the gunman.
Doctors were optimistic about Giffords surviving as she was
responding to commands from doctors despite having a bullet go
through her head. "With guarded optimism, I hope she will survive,
but this is a very devastating wound," said Dr. Richard Carmona,
the former surgeon general who lives in Tucson.
The sheriff pointed to the vitriolic political rhetoric that has
consumed the country as he denounced the shooting that claimed
several of his friends as victims, including U.S. District Judge
John Roll. The judge celebrated Mass on Saturday morning like he
does every day before stopping by to say hello to his good friend
Giffords.
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the
vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the
government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this
country is getting to be outrageous," the sheriff said. "And
unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have
become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
The reaction to the shooting rippled across the country as
Americans were aghast at the sight of such a violent attack on a
sitting member of Congress. The shooting cast a pall over the
Capitol as politicians of all stripes denounced the shooting as a
horrific and senseless act of violence. Obama dispatched his FBI
director to Arizona. Capitol police asked members of Congress to be
more vigilant about security in the wake of the shooting, and some
politicians expressed hope that the killing spree serves as a
wakeup call at a time when the political climate has become so
emotionally charged.
"It is a tragedy for Arizona, and a tragedy for our entire
country," President Barack Obama declared.
Giffords, 40, is a three-term moderate Democrat who narrowly won
re-election in November against a tea party candidate as
conservatives across the country sought to throw her from office
over her support of the health care law. Her office in Tucson was
vandalized in the hours after the House passed the overhaul last
March as anger over the law spread across the country.
Police say the shooter was in custody, and was identified by
people familiar with the investigation as Jared Loughner, 22. Pima
County Sheriff's officials said he used a 9 mm pistol to carry out
the attack. U.S. officials who provided his name to the AP spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release
it publicly.
The suspect's exact motivation was not clear, but a former
classmate described Loughner as a pot-smoking loner who had rambling
beliefs about the world. The Army said he tried to enlist in
December 2008 but was rejected for reasons the military did not
provide.
Dupnik said Giffords was among 13 people wounded in the melee
that killed six people -- including 9-year-old Christina Greene,
30-year-old Gifford aide Gabe Zimmerman, and U.S. District Judge
John Roll. The 63-year-old judge had just stopped by to see his
friend Giffords after attending Mass. Dupnik said the rampage ended
only after two people tackled the gunman. Also killed were
76-year-old Dorthy Murray, 76-year-old Dorwin Stoddard, and
79-year-old Phyllis Scheck, investigators said.
Federal law enforcement officials were poring over versions of a
MySpace page that belonged to Jared Loughner and over a YouTube
video published weeks ago under an account "Classitup10" and
linked to him. The MySpace page, which was removed within minutes
of the gunman being identified by officials, included a mysterious
"Goodbye friends" message published hours before the shooting and
exhorted his friends to "Please don't be mad at me."
In one of several Youtube videos, which featured text against a
dark background, Loughner described inventing a new U.S. currency
and complained about the illiteracy rate among people living in
Giffords' congressional district in Arizona.
"I know who's listening: Government Officials, and the
People," Loughner wrote. "Nearly all the people, who don't know
this accurate information of a new currency, aren't aware of mind
control and brainwash methods. If I have my civil rights, then this
message wouldn't have happen (sic)."
Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said three Giffords staffers
were shot. One died, and the other two are expected to survive.
Gabe Zimmerman, a former social worker who served as Giffords'
director of community outreach, died. Giffords had worked with the
judge in the past to line up funding to build a new courthouse in
Yuma, and Obama hailed him for his nearly 40 years of service as a
judge.
Giffords was first elected to Congress amid a wave of Democratic
victories in the 2006 election, and has been mentioned as a
possible Senate candidate in 2012 and a gubernatorial prospect in
2014.
Giffords is married to astronaut Mark E. Kelly, who has piloted
space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery. The two met in China in
2003 while they were serving on a committee there, and were married
in January 2007. Sen. Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate Commerce
Space and Science Subcommittee, said her husband is training to be
the next commander of the space shuttle mission slated for April.
His brother is currently serving aboard the International Space
Station, Nelson said.
Giffords, known as "Gabby," tweeted shortly before the
shooting, describing her "Congress on Your Corner" event: "My
1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me
know what is on your mind or tweet me later."
"It's not surprising that today Gabby was doing what she always
does, listening to the hopes and concerns of her neighbors," Obama
said. "That is the essence of what our democracy is about."
Giffords has drawn the ire of the right in the last year,
especially from politicians like Sarah Palin over her support of
the health care bill. It's still not clear if the gunman had the
health care debate in mind or was focused on his own unique set of
political beliefs as witnessed in the Internet videos.
Law enforcement officials said members of Congress reported 42
cases of threats or violence in the first three months of 2010,
nearly three times the 15 cases reported during the same period a
year earlier. Nearly all dealt with the health care bill, and
Giffords was among the targets.
Giffords' Tucson office was vandalized a few hours after the
House voted to approve the health care law in March, with someone
either kicking or shooting out a glass door and window. More
recently, the sheriff also said that someone in a "very angry
audience" at a Giffords event dropped a weapon out of their pants.
In an interview after the vandalism, Giffords referred to the
animosity against her by conservatives. Palin listed Giffords' seat
as one of the top "targets" in the midterm elections because of
the lawmakers' support for the health care law.
"For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the
thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs
of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to
realize that there are consequences to that action," Giffords said
in an interview with MSNBC.
In the hours after the shooting, Palin issued a statement in
which she expressed her "sincere condolences" to the family of
Giffords and the other victims.
The sheriff used the word "vitriol" several times to express
his disgust with the political climate in the country and in
Arizona, a heavily conservative state that put itself at the center
of the national debate on immigration last year with a contentious
crackdown on illegal immigrants. Residents and politicians here
have also vocally opposed Obama and Democrats on health care.
The shooting occurred at a shopping center called La Toscana
Village as Giffords met with voters outside a Safeway grocery
store.
Mark Kimball, a communications staffer for Giffords, described
the scene as "just complete chaos, people screaming, crying." The
gunman fired at Giffords and her district director and started
shooting indiscriminately at staffers and others standing in line
to talk to the congresswoman, Kimball said.
"He was not more than three or four feet from the congresswoman
and the district director," he said.
Law enforcement officials and reporters from around the country
quickly descended on Tucson, the second biggest city in the state
and home to the University of Arizona. The scene has been converted
into a command post with about a dozen or so emergency vehicles and
agents in FBI jackets milling about the location.
Outside Giffords' office on Capitol Hill, a handful of
congressional staffers could be seen walking into her office
without comment, some with roller bags and one who was in tears.
About a half dozen yellow flowers placed by one mourner sat outside
the door.
In Loughner's middle-class neighborhood -- about a five-minute
drive from the scene -- sheriff's deputies had much of the street
blocked off as curious neighbors asked what was going on. The
neighborhood sits just off a bustling Tucson street and is lined
with desert landscaping and palm trees.
Neighbors said Loughner kept to himself but that they often saw
him walking his dog, almost always wearing a hooded sweat shirt
listening to his iPod. Neighbors said Loughner lived with his
parents.
"We're getting out of here. We are freaked out," 33-year-old
David Cleveland, who lives a few doors down from Loughner's house,
told The Associated Press.
Cleveland said he was taking his wife and children, ages 5 and
7, to her parent's home when they heard about the shooting.
"When we heard about it we just got sick to our stomachs,"
Cleveland said. "We just wanted to hold our kids tight."
High school classmate Grant Wiens, 22, said Loughner seemed to
be "floating through life" and "doing his own thing."
"Sometimes religion was brought up or drugs. He smoked pot, I
don't know how regularly. And he wasn't too keen on religion from
what I could tell," Wiens said.
Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, called Eyewitness News Saturday afternoon to say his wife is alive and in surgery. Kelly is commander of STS 134, the last scheduled space shuttle mission which is supposed to launch in April.
Kelly left Houston for Tucson Saturday in a charter jet. People at Johnson Space Center are shocked by what happened.
His twin brother, Scott Kelly, is currently on board the International Space Station and we're told that NASA has notified Scott of the shooting.
ABC13's Tom Koch and Jeff Ehling are in Arizona and will continue to cover the shooting that left six people dead and wounded several others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Watch for their reports on Eyewitness News.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.