Authorities release emergency call recorded on day of Tuscon shotting Topic: gabrielle giffords, bbc news
by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, BBC News
A day after a gunman opened fire at an Arizona supermarket, authorities released the emergency calls.
The recordings, which were made public by the Pima County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, paint a patchy picture of the scene just moments after the shooting that killed six people and wounded 14, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Callers spoke with remarkable clarity given the chaos around them. Screams can be heard in the background as one male caller calmly tells another man, "We got help coming."
The following information has been edited for brevity and to protect the names of the callers. Not all calls are included.
911: 911, where is your emergency?
Caller 1: Mrs. Giffords!
911: Hello? Hello?
Caller 1: Oh, 911. There was a shooting at Safeway ... where Gabrielle Giffords was. And I do believe Gabrielle Giffords was hit.
911: At Safeway, sir?
Caller 1: Yeah, Safeway.
911: Was somebody shot then sir?
Caller 1: Yes, it looked like the guy had a semiautomatic pistol and he went in. He just started firing. And then he ran.
911: Which way did he run?
Caller 1: He ran north past the Walgreens that's right next to the Safeway.
911: Can you describe him?
Caller 1: He was wearing a hoodie.
911: What color was the hoodie?
Caller 1: It was black.
911: What color were his pants?
Caller 1: It looked like he was wearing blue jeans. And he was wearing a black sweater.
911: Is anybody injured? Did you say Gabrielle Giffords was hit?
Caller 1: She's hit. I do believe she's breathing. She was breathing. She still has a pulse ... And we got one dead.
911: And there's other people that are injured?
Caller 1: There was multiple people shot.
911: Oh my God.
911: 911, are you reporting a shooting?
Caller 2: Yes, I am.
911: OK, did you witness anything?
Caller 2: Yes I did.
911: What did you witness ma'am?
Caller 2: I witnessed ... gunshot and then I tried to duck down. I see the man that was caught shooting was held down by some other people. They took away his gun and they're holding him down so he can't do anything else.
911: OK, we do have deputies on the way. They'll be there shortly. I need you to stay out of the way where you're at right now and try to get anyone else to safety without getting yourself in any harm, OK?
Caller 2: OK, yeah. I'm in the Walgreens in the back so that way I feel like I'm a little more safe.
911: OK, well we have deputies on the way.
Caller 2: And are you sending lots of ambulances too?
911: Yes we are.
911: Emergency dispatcher, what is the address?
Caller 3: Um, our address is 7114 North Oracle Road. We need more than one ambulance. There is more than one person down.
911: What happened there?
Caller 3: A guy came to the Safeway and started shooting. I saw him. He was in a beanie and a hooded sweatshirt and jeans.
911: We've got that ... Ma'am, we do have the help on the way. How many people are injured there?
Caller 3: We have a total of 10 people maybe more. Oh my God.
Giffords's husband impending space flight is in doubt Topic: gabrielle giffords, bbc news
by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, BBC News
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — The shocking gundown of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has left NASA reeling: Her astronaut husband was due to rocket away in just three months as perhaps the last space shuttle commander, and her brother-in-law is currently on the International Space Station.
Shuttle commander Mark Kelly rushed to his wife's hospital bedside Saturday as his identical twin brother, Scott, did his best to keep updated on the Arizona shooting through Mission Control, the Internet and the lone phone aboard the space station.
"I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers, words of condolences and encouragement for the victims and their families of this horrific event," Scott Kelly tweeted from space.
"My sister-in-law, Gabrielle Giffords is a kind, compassionate, brilliant woman, loved by friends and political adversaries alike — a true patriot. What is going on in our country that such a good person can be the subject of such senseless violence?"
It was the worst news to befall an astronaut in orbit since Christmas 2007, when a space station resident learned of his mother's death in a car-train collision. That astronaut, Daniel Tani, was working in Mission Control in Houston last week, in touch with Scott Kelly and the five other members of the space station crew.
The chief of the astronaut office broke the news to Scott Kelly that a gunman had shot his sister-in-law at a political gathering in Tucson soon after it happened.
NASA officials said Sunday it was premature to speculate on whether Mark Kelly would step down as commander of the April flight of the shuttle Endeavour.
But it was hard to imagine how he could keep up with the grueling training in the next three months, primarily in Houston, and still spend time with his wife of three years, hospitalized in critical condition in Arizona.
Kelly's mission is higher profile than most. Endeavour's final flight will deliver an elaborate physics experiment by a Nobel Prize winner.
For now anyway, it's slated to be the last voyage of the 30-year shuttle program. That fact alone propelled 46-year-old Mark Kelly onto the cover of this month's Air & Space magazine of the Smithsonian Institution; he shares the cover with the first shuttle commander, moonwalker John Young.
In an interview with The Associated Press last fall, Kelly, a Navy officer and three-time shuttle flier, said it was "timing and luck" that snared him one last coveted commander's seat, not his influential wife. She loved sharing his adventure. "She's excited about going to Florida for the launch," he said then.
Until last month, NASA hoped the Kelly brothers would meet in orbit, a PR dream for a space agency often confronted with bad news. But after fuel tank cracks grounded another shuttle mission, Mark Kelly's flight was bumped to April. His brother is to return home in March on a Russian spacecraft, so the reunion in space is off.
As for the rippling effects of Saturday's shooting, there is no precedent for anything like this at NASA. Astronauts have had to bow out of space missions over the decades, but never a commander so close to flight and never for something so brutal.
Mark Kelly's co-pilot, retired Air Force Col. Gregory Johnson, could take over. Or NASA could free up another astronaut with flying-to-the-space-station experience.
"It is premature to speculate on any of this," NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said in an e-mail Sunday. "For now, the focus is on supporting Mark and Scott, and things need to be taken day by day, and all thoughts are with the victims."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called Giffords a "a long-term supporter of NASA... who not only has made lasting contributions to our country, but is a strong advocate for the nation's space program and a member of the NASA family."
Mark Kelly's two teenage daughters from a previous marriage were reportedly with him in Tucson.
The couple met in China in 2003 during a young leaders' forum and married in November 2007 at an organic farm south of Tucson. Giffords, 40, a Democrat, served on the House Science and Technology Committee, and took on NASA affairs while heading the space subcommittee.
She admitted to being nervous at her husband's shuttle launch in 2008. "It's a risky job," she told The Associated Press. "You don't really relax" until touchdown.
Mark Kelly readily accepted his wife's fame. He considered her the bigger star in the family.
Gunman in Tuscon shooting is charged on 5 counts Topic: gabrielle giffords, bbc news
by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, BBC News
TUCSON, Ariz. – Federal prosecutors brought charges Sunday against the gunman accused of attempting to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people at a political event in Arizona.
Investigators said they carried out a search warrant at Jared Loughner's home and seized an envelope from a safe with messages such as "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and the name "Giffords" next to what appears to be the man's signature. He allegedly purchased the Glock pistol used in the attack in November at Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson.
Court documents also show that Loughner had contact with Giffords in the past. Other evidence included a letter addressed to him from Giffords' congressional stationery in which she thanked him for attending a "Congress on your Corner" event at a mall in Tucson in 2007.
Heather Williams, the first assistant federal public defender in Arizona, says the 22-year-old suspect doesn't yet have a lawyer, but that her office is working to get one appointed. Williams' office is asking for an outside attorney because one of those killed was U.S. District Judge John M. Roll.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Sunday that Loughner acted alone.
Meanwhile, authorities released 911 calls in which a person witnessing the mass shooting outside a grocery store in Tucson describes a frantic scene and says, "I do believe Gabby Giffords was hit."
Loughner fired at Giffords' district director and shot indiscriminately at staffers and others standing in line to talk to the congresswoman, said Mark Kimble, a communications staffer for Giffords.
"He was not more than three or four feet from the congresswoman and the district director," Kimble said, describing the scene as "just complete chaos, people screaming, crying."
Loughner is accused of killing six people, including an aide to Giffords and a 9-year-old girl who was born on Sept. 11, 2001. Fourteen others were wounded. Authorities don't know Loughner's motive, but said he targeted Giffords at a public gathering around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Doctors treating the lawmaker provided an optimistic update about her chances for survival, saying they are "very, very encouraged" by her ability to respond to simple commands along with their success in controlling her bleeding.
Mourners crammed into the tiny sanctuary of Giffords' synagogue in Tucson to pray that she quickly recovered. Outside the hospital, candles flickered at a makeshift memorial. Signs read "Peace + love are stronger," "God bless America and "We love you, Gabrielle." People also laid down bouquets of flowers, American flags and pictures of Giffords.
One of the victims was Christina Taylor Green, who was a member of the student council at her local school and went to the event because of her interest in government. She is the granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green.
She was born on 9/11 and featured in a book called "Faces of Hope" that chronicled one baby from each state born on the day terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people.
The fact that Christina's life ended in tragedy was especially tragic to those who knew her. "Tragedy seems to have happened again," said the author of the book, Christine Naman. "In the form of this awful event."
Authorities said the dead included Roll; Green; Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman, 30; Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; and Phyllis Schneck, 79. Judge Roll had just stopped by to see his friend Giffords after attending Mass.
An unidentified man who authorities earlier said might have acted as an accomplice was cleared Sunday of any involvement. Pima County sheriff's deputy Jason Ogan told The Associated Press on Sunday that the man was a cab driver who drove the gunman to the grocery store outside of which the shooting occurred.
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)."
In Loughner's middle-class neighborhood — about a five-minute drive from the scene — sheriff's deputies had much of the street blocked off. The neighborhood sits just off a bustling Tucson street and is lined with desert landscaping and palm trees.
Neighbors said Loughner lived with his parents and kept to himself. He was often seen walking his dog, almost always wearing a hooded sweat shirt and listening to his iPod.
The assassination attempt left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.
Giffords faced frequent backlash from the right over her support of the health care reform last year, and had her office vandalized the day the House approved the landmark measure.
Dupnik lashed out at what he called an excessively "vitriolic" atmosphere in the months leading up to the rampage as he described the chaos of the day.
The sheriff said the rampage ended only after two people tackled the gunman. A third person intervened and tried to pull a clip away from Loughner as he attempted to reload, the sheriff said.
"He was definitely on a mission," according to event volunteer Alex Villec, former Giffords intern.
by Sunita Kureishi, BBC News, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla
An Iranian passenger plane with more than 100 people on board has crashed, Iranian media have reported.
The semi-official Fars news agency said of the 105 passengers and crew on board, at least 50 had survived.
The IranAir plane was flying from the capital Tehran when it came down near the north-western city of Orumiyeh - which was its final destination.
Reports said the plane had come down in bad weather, and snow was hampering rescue efforts.
The plane crashed near Orumiyeh, 700km (430 miles) north-west of Tehran, at around 1945 local time (1615 GMT), an official in West Azerbaijan province said, quoted on Iranian state television's website.
The official said the plane had taken off an hour later than scheduled, and came down because of bad weather conditions.
The head of Iran's emergency services, Gholam Reza Masoumi, said he had received no reports of deaths so far.
"The problem at the moment for rescue work is the heavy snow, which is around 70cm (27 inches) deep around the crash site," Mr Masoumi said, quoted by Fars news agency.
There have been a number of accidents involving Iranian planes over the last few years.
The last major crash was in July 2009, when a plane caught fire mid-air and crashed in northern Iran, killing 168 people.
In 2003 an Iranian troop carrier crashed in the southeast, killing all 276 soldiers and crew on board.
Iran's civil fleet is made up of planes in poor condition due to their old age and lack of maintenance.
Windows at the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were shattered in an apparent vandalism attack just hours after Giffords voted for the health care reform bill in Congress, March 2010. (Gary Jones)
-- The man who is being held in the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and many others has called "Mein Kampf" one of his favorite books.
The alleged gunman, identified by media as Jared Lee Loughner and described as "unstable," on Saturday shot 17 people, killing six. Among the casualties were a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, John Roll. Loughner was tackled and arrested.
Giffords, a Democrat in her third term and the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona, remained in critical condition Sunday morning after being shot in the head.
Giffords was outside one of her signature "Congress at your corner" events outside a Safeway in Tucson, part of her congressional district, when the gunman approached and shot her. A Giffords staff member, Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the organizer of the event, was among the six casualties.
Loughner, who is being held by the FBI, reportedly listed "Mein Kampf" and the "Communist Manifesto" as two of his favorite books on his MySpace page. Several hours before the shooting he reportedly left a "Goodbye friends" message, which also said "Please don't be mad at me."
A suspected accomplice whose image was captured on a surveillance video camera outside the shopping center also is being sought, according to reports.
Giffords was elected to Congress in the Democratic sweep in 2006. She made her Jewish identity part of her campaign.
“If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it,” Giffords, a former state senator, said at the time. “Jewish women -- by our tradition and by the way we were raised -- have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn’t or can’t be done, and pull people together to be successful.”
Giffords, 40, was raised "mixed" by a Christian Scientist mother and Jewish father, but said she decided she was Jewish only following a visit to Israel in 2001. She attended services at a local Reform synagogue.
In a recent photo, she posed with the new U.S. House of Representatives speaker, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), at her swearing-in with her hand on the Five Books of Moses.
Giffords fought a hard re-election battle last year against the national anti-incumbent, anti-Democratic mood. She tacked to the right of her party on immigration, saying border security was of primary consideration.
The election was called in her favor weeks after the vote.
Giffords' office had been vandalized in March after she voted for health care reform. Friends said she had received threats for her positions on health care and for opposing her state's new law allowing police to arrest undocumented immigrants during routine stops.
The National Jewish Democratic Council suggested that the heated rhetoric of the last year contributed to the climate that led to the attack.
"One suspect, now in custody, may be directly responsible for this crime," the group said in a statement. "But it is fair to say -- in today's political climate, and given today's political rhetoric -- that many have contributed to the building levels of vitriol in our political discourse that have surely contributed to the atmosphere in which this event transpired."
US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman in Arizona, is responding well to treatment and can follow simple commands after surgery, doctors say.
They said it "was still very early" but they were "cautiously optimistic".
Ms Giffords, 40, was injured and six other people killed in a shooting at a public meeting at a Tucson supermarket.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested and police are hunting for a second man in connection with the shooting.
Surgeons at the Arizona University Medical Center said Ms Giffords was still in a critical condition but they were optimistic, especially since the bullet that hit her had not crossed both hemispheres of the brain.
They said their surgery had initially controlled the bleeding, then taken the pressure off the brain.
Transfusions had worked well, they said, and after the surgery Ms Giffords could respond to simple commands.
In their press conference, the surgeons said they had treated 11 other patients in the wake of the shooting, of which one - nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green - they were unable to resuscitate.
Five patients remain in serious condition and one has been discharged. Six surgeries were performed.
Dr Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital's trauma and critical care unit, said: "I never thought I would experience something like this in my own back yard. It's a very trying period for all of us."
A vigil crowd gathers outside University Medical Center in Tucson Saturday, where Gabrielle Giffords was taken after being shot. | AP PhotoClose
by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, BBC News
1/9/11 6:44 AM EST Updated: 1/9/11 10:49 AM EST
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remained in critical condition Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after a gunman opened fire on an event in her district, shooting Giffords in the head and killing six, including a federal judge.
A hospital spokeswoman said that Giffords is sedated and knocked down reports that the congresswoman had woken up and that she had been placed in a medically induced coma.
“She did not wake up,” said Darci Slaten, a spokeswoman at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz. “She’s not talking to anybody.”
Several US news outlets previously reported that she had briefly awakened Saturday night in her hospital room and recognized her husband, Navy Capt. Mark Kelly.
Tuscon Mayor Bob Walkup said Giffords underwent a CAT scan this morning.
Dr. Peter M. Rhee, the head of trauma at the University of Arizona medical center, said he was “as optimistic as you can get in this situation,” but that it was too soon to say whether and to what extent Giffords would recover.
The Arizona Republic quoted Mark Kimble, a Giffords staff member, saying he had been informed by doctors that the congresswoman had been shot in “the best place you can be shot … It didn’t cross the centerline of the brain, which is crucial.”
The hospital plans a news conference later this morning to provide an update on her condition.
As Giffords’s exact prognosis remained unknown, House Speaker John Boehner offered his first public remarks about the shooting in a brief statement from West Chester, Ohio.
“This inhuman act should not and will not deter us from our calling, to represent our constituents and to fulfill our oaths of office,” Boehner said. “No act, no matter how heinous, must be allowed to stop us from our duties.”
Boehner - his speakership and the GOP House majority just three days old - noted that one of the victims of Saturday’s shooting was Gabriel Zimmerman, Giffords’s 30-year-old director of community outreach.
“I’ve directed that the flags on the House side of the Capitol be flown at half staff in honor of Gabe’s death in the line of duty,” Boehner said, adding that members of the House would assist the FBI’s investigation in any way possible.
President Barack Obama delivered remarks on the attack Saturday, calling it “a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country,” and announcing that he had dispatched FBI Director Robert Mueller to Arizona.
Several Democratic officials pointed accusatory fingers Sunday morning at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had called for Giffords’s ouster in the 2010 elections and used a crosshairs symbol to mark her district - and 19 others - on an online map showing Democratic members targeted for defeat.
Palin spokeswoman Rebecca Mansour told the talk radio host Tammy Bruce that the crosshairs symbols were “never ever, ever intended … to be gun sights.”»
- A policeman and civilian died and five others were wounded in an shooting incident outside a downtown Baltimore bar early on Sunday morning, with friendly fire possibly a factor in the policeman's death, a police spokesman said.
The officer who died "was attacked by a number of individuals and he withdrew his weapon in his self-defense," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me at the BBC, adding that independent witnesses had corroborated this.
The civilian killed, apparently by the officer, was one of the attackers, Guglielmi said.
He said the officer was responding to a disorderly disturbance at 1:15 a.m. outside a bar, the Select Lounge, involving a large group of individuals.
The officer "went to break up a fight, other individuals went to attack the officer, and ... began assaulting him severely," Guglielmi said.
Pending notification of relatives, police have not identified the officer, but have confirmed he was an 8-year veteran in his 30's.
The officer was in plain clothes, and police are exploring a possible friendly fire situation, Guglielmi said, as "other officers down the street witnessed an individual in plain clothes firing a weapon. It's possible they fired in return."
In addition to the two deaths, four civilians and one police officer were wounded in the incident, Guglielmi said.
Man sought for questioning in Tucson rampage Topic: gabrielle giffords, bbc news
A TV image shows a man wanted for questioning by police in relation to the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. (Getty Images / January 9, 2011)
Pima County sheriff releases a photo of a person of interest in the shooting that killed 6 and wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
by Rochelle van Amber, BBC News, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla
Arizona authorities early Sunday morning were searching for a person of interest in connection with the assassination attempt that left six dead and a congresswoman in critical condition as the nation tried to come to grips with the attack.
The Pima County sheriff's office released a photo of a man they described as a person of interest who was wanted in connection with Saturday's shooting, which left 13 wounded, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, 40. The unknown person was photographed by a surveillance camera near the shooting suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, 22.
The person appears to be white with dark hair and about 40 years old.
"We want to know if the person of interest is associated with" the suspect, Pima County Deputy Jason Ogan said in a telephone interview. "We released the photo to see if anyone knows him."
The suspect was in federal custody Sunday, Ogan said. On the orders of President Obama, FBI Director Robert Mueller traveled to Arizona to head the investigation.
Loughner was apprehended by people in the crowd after the midmorning shooting at a Tuscon supermarket. Witnesses described how he sprayed the area with bullets, killing among others, Arizona's chief federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, who was later identified as the daughter of a Dodgers scout.
Officials wouldn't discuss the motive for the attack, but witnesses said it appeared focused.
"I feel like he knew what he came there to do and he done it," Joe Zamudio said Sunday morning on MSNBC.
Authorities identified the dead as U.S. District Judge John Roll, 63; Christina Greene, 9; Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman, 30; Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; and Phyllis Scheck, 79. Roll had just stopped by to see his friend Giffords after attending Mass.
But officials said they believe that Giffords, who had been sworn in for her third term with the rest of the 112th Congress last week, was the primary target. At 40, Giffords was considered a moderate Democrat who favored immigration reform and who had been the subject of at least two "unfortunate incidents" during the recent campaign for reelection. Giffords defeated "tea party" candidate Jesse Kelly by just 4,000 votes.
In a typically heated congressional campaign in the recent, hyper-partisan midterm elections, Kelly blamed Giffords for supporting President Obama's healthcare overhaul and for her more liberal views on immigration reform, a sore subject in Arizona, a border state whose efforts to halt illegal immigration have drawn condemnation from liberals and the federal government.
On Saturday, Giffords was shot in the head while meeting constituents. She was taken to University Medical Center, where spokeswoman Darcy Slaten said the congresswoman was in critical condition Sunday morning after undergoing two hours of surgery. Hospital officials said they were guardedly optimistic
Slaten said nine other wounded were being treated at the hospital, four of them critical and five serious. Three of the wounded had been treated and released.
While authorities sorted out the details of the shooting, the political world continued to reel as the attack raised fears of a new level of partisan animosity.
In a televised statement from a government building near his home of West Chester, Ohio, House Speaker John Boehner asked that flags at the Capitol be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims. He again condemned violence.
"An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve," Boehner said. "Such acts of violence have no place in our society."
Boehner said the House will postpone its scheduled business this week to deal with any needed actions in the wake of the shooting, including if additional security measures were needed.
The House had been scheduled to vote on a repeal of the Obama healthcare program Wednesday. The action was largely symbolic, fulfilling a GOP pledge in the election campaign. But any repeal was expected to fail in the Senate and would face a veto from Obama.
Boehner's comments echoed those by Obama right after the attack.
Praising Giffords as an extraordinary public servant, the president also condemned the shooting.
"We do not yet have all the answers," Obama said Saturday. "What we do know is that such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society.
Huge numbers of Southern Sudanese are voting amid scenes of jubilation in a referendum on independence expected to split Africa's biggest country in two.
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