Randy and Amy Loughner were shocked when told that their son Jared, 22, had been held after the shooting that left six people dead and more than a dozen injured including a Congresswoman.
'She almost passed out right there,' neighbour Wayne Smith, 70, told the Wall Street Journal. 'He sat in the road with the tape up and cried.'
'They're hurting real bad. They are devastated,' he added.
Mr Smith, who delivered the mail to the couple yesterday, was told by Mr Loughner that his wife was having a 'nervous breakdown'.
The Loughners had put up double-thick plywood to block access to the front porch of their Tucson home.
However, FBI agents were able to gain access via a back entrance before their son appeared in court yesterday.
Mr Smith told the Journal that on Saturday the Loughners had returned home from shopping in their white Chevy truck to find sheriffs' cars at the house and deputies stringing crime scene tape around the area.
He said he had seen the news on television and went across to tell them their son was the suspect.
The Journal reported that Mr Smith said Randy Loughner was reluctant to face the public. He is not believed to have worked since his son's birth but his wife had a steady job.
The paper, citing people familiar with the case, said the parents had told investigators that they had not realised the full extent of their son's mental health problems.
Scroll down for video report
Judge Lawrence Anderson read Jared Loughner his rights as he appeared in his beige prison jumpsuit
Mr Smith told the paper that he did not know the couple's last name until this weekend even though he had lived across the street since 1972.
THE DEFENCE LAWYER WITH A RECORD OF SAVING CLIENTS FROM THE DEATH PENALTY
Judy Clarke (right) who will represent Jared Loughner has a low-key style and a record of saving high-profile clients from the death penalty.
It was Clarke who worked on plea agreements that spared 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski and Eric Rudolph, who bombed abortion clinics in the late 1990s and Atlanta's Olympic park in 1996.
She was on a team that negotiated a plea that avoided death for white supremacist Buford Furrow Jr., who shot up a Jewish centre in Los Angeles in 1999.
She also helped persuade a jury to spare the life of Susan Smith, who strapped her sons in their car seats and let her car roll into a South Carolina lake in 1994, carrying the boys to their deaths.
Colleagues describe Clarke, 58, as a tireless advocate for her clients and a staunch opponent of the death penalty who shuns the spotlight.
Her lack of ego is 'so uncharacteristic among criminal defense lawyers that it's almost freakish', said David Bruck, a close friend since they attended law school together.
'She'll be invisible to the press,' said Mr Bruck. 'She won't give you two minutes between now and when the trial is over unless there's a very good reason having to do with her client's defence. She will never get in front of the cameras just to be in front of the cameras.'
Clarke, who was raised in Asheville, N.C., has called San Diego home for much of the last 30 years. Her passion and skill at defending death penalty cases have made her a hot commodity across the country, and she travels frequently.
'Some of these cases are not about, "Is the defendant guilty?"' said Quin Denvir, her co-counsel on the Unabomber case. 'It's about what the sentence is going to be. That could be true in this case.'
Jared Loughner potentially faces the death penalty after the shooting spree outside a Tucson supermarket.
Bruck said Clarke has been able to strike deals with prosecutors that initially seemed out of the question.
Clarke told the San Antonio Express-News in 1996 that she wanted to be a lawyer since she was 11 or 12 years old and has always been an advocate for the underdog.
'I thought it would be neat to be Perry Mason and win all the time,' she said.
She headed the federal public defender's office in San Diego from 1983 to 1991 and in Spokane, Wash., from 1992 to 2002. She is married to Speedy Rice, a law professor at Washington and Lee who focuses on international law and human rights.
Mario Conte, who teaches at California Western School of Law in San Diego and has known Clarke since 1980, said her passion against the death penalty is unique among criminal defense lawyers.
'There are a lot of us who are very philosophically opposed in our line of work, but Judy certainly takes it to another level,' he said.Despite this, he described himself as probably one of Mr Loughner's closest neighbours.
It has also emerged that Jared registered as an independent voter in 2006 rather than Democrat or Republican indicating he was not politically motivated.
As the debate rages over the gun attack, liberals have claimed Loughner was influenced by the anti-government politics of the Tea Party movement. Those on the right has said the 22-year-old was not politically motivated and simply mentally ill.
Shaven-headed Jared Loughner appeared in court yesterday with a cut on his right temple to answer the murder charges.
He stared vacantly at the packed courtroom and sat down to listen to whispered instructions from his attorney.
Six people died in the hail of gunfire outside a Tucson supermarket including a nine-year-old girl, a congressional aide and a federal judge.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was gravely wounded after being shot in the head. She lay about a 100 miles away in an intensive care unit as Loughner appeared in court. Although her conditions is described as critical she is able to give a thumbs-up sign that has encouraged doctors.
Thirteen other people were injured in the gunfire.
The shootings have sparked fierce debate over gun control and whether heated political rhetoric fuelled the incident.
Before the hearing began, Jared Loughner's court-appointed attorney Judy Clarke whispered to the defendant, who only spoke to say 'yes' when the judge asked if he understood that he could face life in prison - or the death penalty for the killings.
Clarke, had earlier defended 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski and Al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui among others.
The judge ordered Loughner held without bail.
A mass for all the victims is scheduled for later today at St. Odelia's Parish in Tucson.
Among the dead was nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was born on the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Her funeral is on Thursday.
President Barack Obama will travel to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for the victims.
Americans observed a moment of silence yesterday for the victims of the rampage, from the South Lawn of the White House and the steps of the U.S. Capitol to legislature beyond Arizona and the International Space Station.
There, Giffords' brother-in-law, Scott, the commanding officer, spoke over the radio. Flight controllers in Houston fell silent.
'As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful,' he said. 'Unfortunately, it is not.'
The outside of the home of Jared Lee Loughner shared with his parents Randy and Amy, who were last night said to be 'devastated' at the arrest of their son for the shooting
Cryptic: A skull sits surrounded by rotting fruit near burnt candles at what appears to be a makeshift altar at Jared Loughner's Tucson home
'These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words,' he said.
'We're better than this,' he said. 'We must do better.'
On a cold morning outside the White House yesterday, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stood side by side, each with their hands clasped, heads bowed and eyes closed.
On the steps of the U.S. Capitol, congressional staff and other employees did the same.
At the Supreme Court, the justices paused for a moment of silence between the two cases they were hearing Monday morning. Arizona's chief federal judge, John Roll, was killed in the attack.
The president called for the country to come together in prayer or reflection for those killed and those fighting to recover.
'In the coming days we're going to have a lot of time to reflect,' he said.
'Right now the main thing we're doing is to offer our thoughts and prayers to those who've been impacted, making sure we're joining together and pulling together as a country.'
The shooting highlighted tensions that have been running high between conservatives and liberals in the United States, where activists and talk show radio hosts have been employing increasingly violent language in their criticisms of the Obama administration.
In 2009, a protestor was discovered carrying a gun at another Giffords rally and there were signs the congresswoman was becoming concerned about the strident tone of the political debate in the U.S.
The day before Giffords was wounded, she sent an e-mail to a friend discussing how to 'tone our rhetoric and partisanship down'.
In the message, the Democratic congresswoman wrote to Republican Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson to congratulate him on his new positions at Harvard University.
Enlarge
Victims of the attack by the Loughner. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in hospital after being shot in the head. The dead are, from left, top, Christina Taylor, nine, Federal Judge John Roll, 63, Phyllis Scheck, 79, Gabe Zimmerman, 30, Dorothy Morris, 76, and Dorwan Stoddard
Candles and cards are spread out in front of the offices of Congresswoman Giffords
Paying respects: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle offer a moment's silence outside the White House for the Tucson victims yesterday
'After you get settled, I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation. I am one of only 12 Dems left in a GOP district (the only woman) and think that we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down.'
GOP stands for Grand Old Party and refers to the Republicans.
Giffords narrowly managed re-election in 2010, in Arizona a conservative state known for its liberal gun control laws and which made headlines last year after it passed a draconian anti-immigration law allowing police to stop those they suspected of being in the country illegally.
Giffords was a vocal opponent of the law and a supporter of Obama's healthcare law widely opposed by conservatives.
In total, 20 people were shot in the rampage outside a supermarket where Giffords held her meeting.
Loughner is charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. Those are federal charges.
State prosecutors, meanwhile, are researching whether they have to wait until after the federal case is resolved, or if they can proceed with local charges at the same time, an official said.
Giffords, 40, was shot in the head, at close range. She was in critical condition at Tucson's University Medical Center. Two patients were discharged Sunday night. Seven others, remained hospitalized.
Recent CT scans showed no further swelling in the brain, but doctors were guarded.'We're not out of the woods yet,' her neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Lemole said. 'That swelling can sometimes take three days or five days to maximize. But every day that goes by and we don't see an increase, we're slightly more optimistic.'
Her doctors have declined to speculate on what specific disabilities Giffords may face.
With few new details emerging at the hearing, questions remained about what could have motivated someone to arm himself with a pistol and magazines carrying 33 bullets each, and raining gunfire on a supermarket parking lot crowded with men, women and children.
No comments:
Post a Comment