Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson

By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: January 8, 2011

A congresswoman from Arizona was shot point blank in the head on Saturday in a shooting at a public event at a grocery store in Tucson, according to her spokesman, C. J. Karamargin, and news reports. Twelve others were injured in the shooting and several had died of their wounds, according to news reports.

Her condition was unknown. She was taken to University Medical Center in Tucson, the trauma center for the area, about 10 miles away, but NPR and CNN reported that she had been killed. NPR said that six others had been killed in the shooting.

CNN quoted a public information officer for the sheriff’s office as saying that 12 people had been injured in all and that the shooting had occurred around 10 a.m. local time.

An employee at a nearby store told CNN that he heard a steady stream of gun fire that appeared sustained “random.” Shortly after, emergency vehicles filled the parking lot around the grocery story and cordoned off the area.

The shooting occurred at a Safeway supermarket in northwest Tucson as Ms. Giffords hosted an event, called “Congress on Your Corner, to allow members of the 8th Congressional District to meet her individually. She has held several events since first taking office in January 2007. At one such event in 2009, a protester was removed by police when his pistol fell on the supermarket floor.

Last March, her Tucson office was vandalized a few hours after the House vote overhauling the nation’s health care system, the authorities said. Earlier events in Tucson, Oro Valley, Green Valley, Sierra Vista, and Douglas had attracted between 75 and 150 people, according to a statement announcing the event. This was her first event since her re-election to a third term in November.

Ms. Giffords, 40, was interviewed on Fox news on Friday to talk about a bill to cut to congressional salaries by 5 percent.

She married Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly, 46, a NASA astronaut and Navy pilot from New Jersey, in December 2007 at a wedding attended by Robert B. Reich, the former Labor secretary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us...9giffords.html
Bad. Really bad.