TUCSON: A US congresswoman was in critical condition after being shot in the head Saturday by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl.
President Barack Obama called the attack, at a public meeting, a “tragedy for our entire country” while Arizona Senator John McCain called the shooter — reportedly a white male in his early 20s — a “disgrace to Arizona.”
Initial media reports suggested that Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords had died following the shooting outside a Safeway grocery store. The dead included veteran US federal judge John Roll and the young girl Doctors said Giffords could recover despite being shot in the brain.
“She is in critical condition. They have finished operating on her and at the time period, I’m optimistic about recovery,” said University Medical Center trauma chief Peter Rhee.
“We cannot tell what kind of recovery, but I’m about as optimistic as you can get,” he added.
Giffords was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event with constituents at when the gunman attacked, killing six and wounding 12, according to police spokesman Rick Kastigar, while Obama said at least five had died.
Witnesses said the lawmaker was hit at point-blank range in the shooting, for which no motive was immediately known.
National Public Radio said the suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander before being taken into custody, and that witnesses described him as being in his late teens or early 20s.
Local media and CNN identified him as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, a white male.
Andrea Gooden, who was in an office across the street, told Fox News she heard a burst of gunshots and “immediately after that there were people racing across the parking lot,” while another witness told CNN he heard 15-20 shots.
The incident came amid heightened security after packages ignited in a post office in Washington, DC on Friday and two government buildings in neighboring Maryland on Thursday.
Giffords, 40, became the first Jewish woman to be elected to Congress from Arizona in 2006 and is married to Mark Kelly, a NASA astronaut.
She was a centrist and a member of the so-called Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats who support fiscally conservative, pro-business policies.
She has pushed for more troops to guard the nearby US-Mexico border and favored a path to legalization that would require illegal immigrants to pass a criminal background check, pay back taxes and learn English.
Obama condemned the attack as an “unspeakable tragedy” adding: “Such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society.”Arizona Senator and former presidential candidate McCain said: “Whoever did this; whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he was “horrified” by the attack, while senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi added: “This terrible act of violence is a national tragedy, and today is a very sad day for our country.”Other Congress members were advised to review their security. The US Capitol police urged them to “take reasonable and prudent precautions regarding their personal safety and security.”The shooting came days after Congress reconvened with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and with an enhanced minority in the Senate following their route of Obama’s Democrats in November elections.
Former Arizona attorney general Terry Goddard said there had been previous threats against Roll.
“There has been occasional violent talk this last election season…Violent talk sometimes begets violent actions,” he said, referring to campaigning ahead of November 2 mid-term ballots.
Conservative standard-bearer Sarah Palin also offered her condolences the victims. “We all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page.
Gifford had been among those targeted for defeat by Palin because of the Democrat’s support for the Obama health care overhaul.
Giffords’s name was on a list of lawmakers beneath the slogan “It’s time to take a stand” and an advertisement for SarahPAC, Palin’s political action committee.
