Tucson to mark one year since Gabrielle Giffords was shot
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Sunday will mark one year since a gunman opened fire outside a Tucson grocery store, killing six people and wounding 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head.
Since then, the Democratic congresswoman has undergone intense physical therapy. It’s unclear whether she will run for reelection. When asked about the possibility during a recent interview, Giffords, sometimes straining to find the words, said yes -– but only if she gets better.
The families of the dead -– Judge John Roll, Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman, Dorwan Stoddard, Phyllis Schneck, Dorothy Morris and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green -– continued to piece their lives back together, as did the wounded members of Giffords’ staff.
‘I can’t hate anybody and I can’t blame anybody and I can’t be angry with anybody,” Dorwan Stoddard’s wife, Mavy, told the Associated Press. ‘Who am I going to be angry at? God? No. The shooter? Why?’
The suspected gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the rampage. He is undergoing treatment in a federal prison hospital, which prosecutors hope will restore his competency and allow him to stand trial.
In September, Loughner’s primary psychologist testified that, after several months of medication, he now ‘understands he’s murdered people’ and has stopped insisting that Giffords was among those killed.
Tucson plans to commemorate the shootings with events including a community-wide bell-ringing at 10:11 a.m., when the shooting began, and a service to honor the dead. Speakers include two friends of Christina-Taylor’s.
At 6:30 local time, a vigil will be led by Ron Barber, Giffords’ district director, who was shot in the leg and cheek. Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, are scheduled to attend.
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--Ashley Powers in Las Vegas