Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was fighting for her life Sunday after being shot at close range by an assailant armed with an automatic pistol and linked to a disturbing series of web postings hinting at vaguely violent and bizarre political beliefs. In a news conference Sunday, doctors said Ms. Giffords is able to communicate with simple commands.
The murderous rampage by a delusional dropout who killed six and wounded more than a dozen others has sent political shockwaves rolling across America.
“This is more than a tragedy for those involved. It is a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country,” said President Barack Obama, who praised the outspoken Ms. Giffords who was shot Saturday morning while holding a “meet and greet” with citizens in the mostly conservative state where she only narrowly managed to hold her seat in last November’s election.
But in the aftermath of the first political shooting in America since former president Ronald Reagan was nearly killed outside a Washington hotel by a deranged gunman seeking to impress an actress in 1981, accusations and recriminations were flying.
Ms. Giffords, 40 and the youngest-ever woman elected to the House of Representatives, was one of 20 Democrats targeted by Sarah Palin on a map she posted online last fall using icons of gun sights.
Nothing links the shooter to Ms. Palin, and the former Alaska governor was quick to voice condolences to the gravely-wounded Ms. Giffords, but the atmosphere of divisiveness and hate that pervades American politics will be closely examined in the wake of the assassination attempt.
“The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous” Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said. “Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”
Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who was wrestled to the ground after he ran out of bullets (and it’s estimated that two dozen rounds were fired in the murderous spree outside a Safeway grocery store), was in custody but was refusing to speak to police. In recent months he had posting increasingly odd – vaguely violent – internet videos, decrying everything from bad grammar to the community college that kicked him out, to the U.S. currency. But there was nothing overtly threatening in the postings and nothing to suggest that Ms. Gifford was a target.
"The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar,” claimed one of Mr. Loughner’s postings.
Eyewitnesses said the gunman barged into a crowd waiting to speak with Ms. Giffords, and then opened fire, shooting her first at close range in the head.
The bullet passed through her skull and brain, exiting the other side of her head and leaving her gravely injured. After hours of surgery, she remained in critical condition but doctors were cautiously optimistic that she might survive the horrific wounds. “I am very optimistic about her recovery, … we cannot tell what kind of recovery, but I’m as optimistic as it can get in this kind of situation,” said Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director at the University Medical Center in Tucson.
Six others were dead, including a John Roll, 63, federal court judge; Christina Greene, a nine-year-old, third-grade student; Gabe Zimmerman, 30, one of Ms. Giffords’ aides; and three elderly voters who were discussing health-care reform with the Democrat congresswoman when the gunfire erupted.
The three senior citizens were identified as Dorothy Murray, 76, Dorwin Stoddard, 76 and Phyllis Scheck, 79. Seventeen others were injured, some of them seriously as the shooter unloaded a specially extended magazine on a 9mm Glock automatic handgun, a deadly weapon readily available in states such as Arizona with lax gun ownership laws.
