Officials released this photo and a written statement on a second suspect in the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others yesterday at an Tuson Arizona Safeway grocery store...
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition today after a gunman fired on a crowd of people at a political meet-and-greet outside an Arizona supermarket yesterday. Altogether, six people, including Arizona's top federal judge, were killed and 14 others injured; Giffords was shot in the back of the head at close range during her first "Congress at Your Corner" event in Tucson, but survived. Police have arrested 22-year-old suspected shooter Jared Lee Loughner, but they are now searching for a possible accomplice who is still at large.
Officials released a surveillance photograph of the second suspect, who was seen "in proximity" to Loughner at the Safeway store where the shooting occured. He is between 40 and 50 years old, with dark hair, and police are interviewing witnesses to determine if he is "possibly associated with the suspect." Loughner was tackled by a bystander on the scene. "He was not sort of going around and picking out people and firing at them...He was just firing his gun indiscriminately," said witness Dr. Steven Rayle, who added that the shooter had a "determined look" as he opened fire.
It's believed that Giffords was the intended target and there was an outpouring of grief from politicians and constituents for the 40-year-old self-described blue dog Democrat who had just been re-elected for her third term in Congress in a politically-fiery Arizona district. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital�s trauma and critical care unit, said that Giffords had been shot once in the head, �through and through,� with the bullet going through her brain; nevertheless, he said he was "very optimistic" about her chances for recovery. As this story about a man who shot himself three times in the head shows, it is possible to recover from such close-range headwounds. Credit is also going to 20-year-old intern Daniel Hernandez, who rushed to stop her bleeding just after she had been shot.
At a vigil outside Giffords hospital, concerned citizens tried to make sense of the tragic shooting, and the apparent political motivations which lurked behind it. "The thing that's so powerful about this -- is that Gabrielle Giffords' district is predominantly Republican. In order to win that district, I worked shoulder to shoulder with Republicans ... it was a model for what this country should be," said Linda Ray, who worked on all of Giffords' campaigns. "We live in a time of polarized politics where hate is acceptable. This is the exact opposite of democracy. I am ashamed of my state," said conservationist Kevin Dahl.
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