Jared Loughner Update: Newly released records shed light on Arizona shooting spree suspect
(AP) PHOENIX - As authorities investigated the rampage that killed six people and wounded former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, they compiled nearly 3,000 pages of documents that include everything from interviews with survivors and victims to police reports filed from the crime scene.
The documents, released Wednesday, provide new insight into how the shooting occurred and the motivations behind gunman Jared Loughner. One of the main themes to emerge was his increasingly erratic behavior, perhaps summed up best by his father as he told investigators: He "just doesn't seem right lately."
A look at some of the major findings:
LOUGHNER
The gunman was polite and cooperative with authorities who were holding him the afternoon following his morning shooting rampage. The conversation as Loughner sat in restraints in an interview room was mainly small talk. Little was said over the four hours. Loughner asks at one point if he can please use the restroom and says "Thank you" when allowed. At another point he complained that "I'm about ready to fall over."
GUNMAN'S MOTHER
Loughner's mother, Amy, described his run-ins with authorities, his use of marijuana and cocaine, his journals and his increasingly erratic behavior. She also says the parents took a shotgun away from Loughner after he was kicked out of a community college and tested him for drugs because his behavior was so strange.
GUNMAN'S FATHER
Randy Loughner said his son became increasingly difficult, and it was a challenge to have a rational conversation with him. "I tried to talk to him. But you can't, he wouldn't let you," he said "Lost, lost, and just didn't want to communicate with me no more."
MENTAL ILLNESS
Despite their son's increasingly bizarre behavior, Loughner's parents never got him help. Randy Loughner said his son had never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Had he seen a doctor, the detective asked. "No," replied the father. The parents were also asked about any journals or writings that Loughner kept. The father said they were written in an indecipherable script.
GOING TO THE SCENE
Loughner went to a convenience store immediately before the shooting and had the clerk call a cab for him. As he waited for the car, he was pacing inside and outside the store and went to the bathroom three or four times. The employee said that as Loughner was waiting for the cab, he looked up at a clock and said, "nine twenty-five, I still got time."
TRAFFIC STOP
A wildlife agent pulled Loughner over earlier in the day for a traffic violation. He cried and said, "I've just had a rough time," and then composed himself, thanked the agent and shook his hand after he was let go with a warning. The agent asked Loughner again if he was OK, and Loughner said he was going home.
THE SCENE
Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez helped tend to his boss after she was shot in the head. In an interview, he described the chaos: "She couldn't open her eyes. I tried to get any responses for her. Um, it looked like her left side was the only side that was still mobile. Um, she couldn't speak. It was mumbled. She was squeezing my hand.
"I did some training as a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a phlebotomist, um, when I was in high school. So I knew that we need to see if she's got a pulse. She was still breathing. Her breathing was getting shallower. Uh, I then lifted her up so that she wasn't flat on the ground against the wall," he said.
BIZARRE VOICEMAIL
On the day of the shooting, Loughner friend Bryce Tierney told investigators that Loughner had called him early in the morning and left a cryptic voicemail that he believed was suicidal. "He just said, `Hey, this is Jared. Um, we had some good times together. Uh, see you later.' And that's it." He tried to call back, but it was a restricted number that didn't register on his phone.
EDDIE BAUER
Loughner's father considered his son's firing as a salesman at an Eddie Bauer store to be a turning point. Asked about how the firing affected his son, Randy Loughner said: "He just wasn't the same. He just, nothing, nothing worked, seem to go right for him."
GUNS
Loughner bought a 12-gauge shotgun in 2008, but his parents took it away from him after he was expelled from college and administrators recommended that any firearms be taken away. The shotgun was the only gun his parents knew Loughner owned.
CARING FOR GIFFORDS
A firefighter described how he cared for Giffords after arriving at the scene. "You'd ask her to grab your hand and she would grab your hand," he said. He and paramedics rushed her to the hospital in an ambulance, giving her oxygen and an IV.
THE ENCOUNTER
Hernandez described how constituents and other people were lining up to see Giffords, and he was helping people sign in. He recalled handing Loughner a clipboard. "The next thing I hear is someone yell, `gun,"' he said.
LOUGHNER FRIEND
One-time Loughner friend Zachary Osler was an employee at a store where Loughner later bought a Glock handgun before the shooting. Osler was questioned about seeing Loughner shopping inside, sometime before Thanksgiving. He describes an awkward encounter with his former friend. "His response is nothing. Just a mute facial expression. And just like he, he didn't care." Osler told investigators he had grown uncomfortable with Loughner's personality, "He would say he could dream and then control what he was doing while he was dreaming." Osler says Loughner never mentioned Giffords to him.
REACTION
Osler said when he learned that Loughner was the suspect in the shooting, "my jaw just dropped. And I was like I know this person. Why he would do it? What would his motive be? If he had people help him? I do not know."
UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER
A few weeks before the shooting, Loughner showed up at the apartment of boyhood friend Anthony Kuck with a 9 mm pistol in his waistband. Loughner said he bought the gun for Christmas. He insisted it was for "home protection," Kuck's roommate, Derek Andrew Heintz, told a Pima County Sheriff's detective and FBI agent who interviewed him the evening after the shooting. Loughner left Heintz with a souvenir: A bullet.
POSSESSIONS
Police reports show what authorities found in Loughner's possession after the shooting. In Loughner's left front pocket were two magazines for a Glock, both fully loaded. In his other front pocket was a foldable knife with about a 4-inch blade. In his back right pocket, he had a baggie with some money, a Visa credit card and his Arizona driver's license. He was wearing a black beanie, a black hoodie-type sweatshirt, khaki pants and Skechers shoes.