Arizona Shooting Victim James Eric Fuller Under Psychiatric Evaluation After Town Hall Outburst
TUCSON, Ariz. (CBS/AP) James Eric Fuller, one of the wounded in the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., remains under psychiatric evaluation following his arrest Saturday for threatening a Tea Party leader during a televised town hall meeting.
Authorities say Fuller, a military veteran and self-described liberal, began ranting at the end of ABC's "This Week" program with Christiane Amanpour, then took a picture of Tucson Tea Party leader Trent Humphries and yelled, "You're dead."
"Deputies made contact with him, attempted to remove him, and he turned around and yelled at everybody and called them all whores," Pima County sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan told The Associated Press.
While Fuller, 63, was being escorted out, deputies decided he needed a mental health evaluation and he was taken to a hospital. Ogan said the hospital will determine when Fuller will be released.
Fuller was arrested on misdemeanor disorderly conduct and threat charges, according to the sheriff.
He released a written statement Monday, apologizing to Humphries for his "misplaced outrage."
"It was not in the spirit of our allegiance and warm feelings of each other as citizens of this great country," Fuller said in the statement.
Fuller was shot in the knee and back when a gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords two weeks ago. The congresswoman was critically injured in the mass shooting that left six people dead.
Humphries, co-founder of the Tucson Tea Party, told the AP that he was worried about Fuller's threat, and dozens of other angry e-mails he has received from people blaming right-wing political rhetoric for contributing to the Jan. 8 massacre
.Alleged gunman Jared Loughner, 22, remains jailed in a federal lockup in Phoenix.