RA Student Shoots Congresswoman, Kills Fed Judge

[Martin Eisenstadt]

Sometimes, danger lurks in the beanie on the head. Are they sure it wasn't a yarmulke?

Witness: Gunman 'was going for the congresswoman'
By Patrick Finley Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, January 8, 2011 3:45 pm

The gunman, wearing a beanie and baggy clothes, approached Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ meet-and-greet Saturday wanting to speak with her immediately, a witness says.

Alex Villec, a 19-year-old volunteer, organized the line of constituents outside the Safeway where a young man approached the line.

He said, “Can I talk to the congresswoman?”, or something to that effect, Villec said. He told the man to stand at the back of a line to wait for about 20 minutes.

“He went to the back of the line,” Villec said, “and didn’t seem too interested in what I had to say.”

Minutes later, the man left the back of the line and walked toward Giffords, who was with 20 to 25 constituents, employees and volunteers.

“He was intent,” Villec said. “He was intent when he came back — a pretty stone cold glance and glare.”

“I didn’t see his gun, but it was clear who he was going for. He was going for the congresswoman,” Villec said.

“A few staff members were caught in the crossfire …. His goal was the congresswoman.”

The shooter walked past Villec and to his left, past tables and toward Giffords. He raised his hand. Villec heard gunshots before ducking behind a pillar and later running across the Safeway parking lot to a bank for safety.

“It was bedlam,” he said. “People were getting down on the ground. They were screaming. I just did what I could to keep myself protected.”

Villec worked on Giffords’ 2008 campaign and interned twice in the past year for her, both in Tucson and in Washington, D.C. The Catalina Foothills High School graduate volunteered Saturday in part to see old friends. He was set to return to Georgetown University on Sunday.

The weapon “sounded like a handgun.” He did not hear the shooter speak while firing; from behind a pillar, Villec heard someone cry, “Get down.” Villec did not see two men tackle the gunman, though spoke with one of the men afterward. That tackler, he said, was next in line to greet Giffords.

“It’s heroic,” Villec said.” I’m at a loss for words to describe the courage it takes to do a thing like that.”

At 10:19 a.m., Villec texted his mother, Anne Hoff.

“I’m safe and fine,” it read. “There was a shooting outside Safeway. I’m completely O.K.”

Hoff, who drove to the Safeway lot, said she was thankful for the pre-emptive text.

“I don’t know,” she said, “what makes someone lucky.”

Villec, who was still shocked about his close call, knew the gravity of what occurred outside the Safeway early Saturday.

“It’s clear that this is a contentious district. Passions run deep on these issues, so much so that somebody would be compelled to do something like this,” he said. “However, the kind of bickering that happens on a day-to-day basis never reaches physical violence.

“This is unprecedented — and it’s going to send shockwaves throughout the country.”

Man linked to Giffords shooting called 'very disturbed'
By Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Saturday, January 8, 2011 3:11 pm



The man linked to the shooting today of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others is 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, the Associated Press reported.

Police have surrounded a house at 7700 N. Soledad Ave., which is the address listed by a man with the same name on a variety of online accounts and in the volunteer registry for the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books. The home is near West Magee Road and North Thornydale Road on the northwest side, about five miles from the shooting scene.

A former classmate of Loughner at [regionally accredited] Pima Community College said he was “obviously very disturbed.”

“He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” said Lynda Sorenson, who took a math class with Loughner last summer at Pima Community College’s Northwest campus.

Sorenson doesn’t recall if he ever made any threats or uttered political statements but he was very disruptive, she said. He was asked to leave the pre-algebra class several times and eventually was barred from class, said Sorenson, a Tucson resident.

MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts maintained by Loughner suggest he has spent most of his life on the northwest side: His profile says he attended Thornydale Elementary, Tortolita Middle School, Mountain View High School and Pima Community College.

The online accounts also contain bizarre discussions of a new currency and literacy, as well as threatening and despairing messages.

“WOW! I’m glad i didn’t kill myself. I’ll see you on National T.v.! This is foreshadow .... why doesn’t anyone talk to me?..” he posted on MySpace Dec. 14.

On Dec. 13, he wrote: “I don’t feel good: I’m ready to kill a police officer! I can say it.”

In a posting on YouTube, Loughner wrote repeatedly about a new currency.

“I’m thinking of creating a new currency,” he wrote. “Therefore, I’m thinking of a design for my new coins size, shape, color, material, and image to start a new money system.”

He also wrote repeatedly about literacy. In a written message on YouTube, Loughner said: “The majority of people, who reside in District-8 are illiterate — hilarious. I don’t control your English grammar structure, but you control your English grammar structure.”

In a message posted on his MySpace account, titled “Goodbye friends,” Loughner said: “Dear friends...please don’t be mad at me. The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person who is literate.” It was unclear when it was posted.

In a MySpace profile, Loughner said “My favorite interest was reading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a great study in college.”

He lists among his favorite books “Mein Kampf” and “The Communist Manifesto”. But he also includes a broad variety of other titles, including: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

In another YouTube message, Loughner said: “I know who’s listening: Government Officials, and the People. 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.”

“In conclusion, my ambition - is for informing literate dreamers about a new currency; in a few days, you know I’m conscience dreaming! Thank you!”

In a youtube.com video dated Dec. 15, entitled “Introduction: Jared Loughner” the accused gunman describes himself as a U.S. military recruit who had applied to join the Army. The Army, however, said it rejected Lougher as a recruit in 2008.

Loughner’s youtube video makes a rambling mention of “MEPS in Phoenix” a reference to the Military Entrance Processing Station in the state capital that all Arizona recruits from every branch of service pass through before leaving for basic training.

“Every United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix is receiving one mini bible before the tests,” it said. “Jared Loughner is a United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix. Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini bible before the tests.

“I didn’t write a belief on my Army application and the recruiter wrote on the application: None.”

First Sgt. Brian Homme, who oversees Army recruiting in Tucson, said Loughner applied to enlist in December 2008 and was sent to Phoenix to take a test and physical. But “he was found to be unqualified so he never joined the Army,” Homme said.

He declined to say why Loughner was rejected, citing confidentiality laws.

Jared Loughner has had at least two minor run-ins with police, according to on-line court records.

In October 2007, Loughner was cited by the Pima County Sheriff's Department for possession of drug paraphernalia, a charge that was dismissed in November 2007 when he completed a diversion program.

One year later, in October 2008, Loughner was charged with a "local charge" in Marana Municipal Court, that charge was also dismissed following the completion of a diversion program in March 2009.

Court records indicate the Marana case file is due to be purged in December 2013. It's unclear what the exact charge was.

Grant Wiens, 22, attended Mountain View High School with Loughner, although they were not in the same grade.

Wiens also took a class at Pima Community College with Loughner, where they occasionally talked, he said.

“He was a guy in high school who definitely had his opinions on stuff and didn’t seem to care what people thought of him,” Wiens said. “He did his own thing.”

Ryan Miller, 19, was a sophomore at Mountain View when Loughner was a senior.

He said Loughner was seemed like a normal kid.

“I was in shock,” he said, describing his reaction to the shooting. “I didn’t know what possessed someone our age to do something like this.”

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Please note: Those are not gunsight crosshairs on Sarah Palin's website. We have it on the best of self-appointed authority that those are really microscope reticules.