Assassination attempt in Tucson

The crime scene after the attack

In the Tucson attack on January 8, 2011, shortly after 10 a.m. local time, visitors to a public questionnaire run by Democratic Congressman Gabrielle Giffords were attacked. The attack took place in a shopping center in Casas Adobes , about 17 kilometers north of the city of Tucson , in the US state of Arizona . Gabrielle Giffords was the first target and was seriously injured from a close range shot in the head. Six people were subsequently killed, including Arizona federal judge John McCarthy Roll and a nine-year-old girl, and 13 others were injured, some seriously. The assassin was overpowered by participants and then arrested by the police. He was later identified by the authorities as Jared Lee Loughner, 22.

It was the first assassination attempt on a US federal politician since the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981.

prehistory

Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords was the youngest member of Congress in her first election in 2006 at the age of 36 and the first Jewish woman elected to the Arizona House of Representatives .

Giffords, who was also recognized by the Republican electorate as a conservative Blue Dog Democrat, has been threatened several times by strangers since the beginning of 2010 and verbally attacked by political opponents. After she spoke out in favor of reforming the American health system in March 2010 , her office door was destroyed with a gun by strangers the following day. Giffords was already in her third term . Shortly before the attack, she took up the mandate and advocated a five percent cut in MPs' salaries. As part of her mandate, Gabrielle Giffords advocated the right to carry firearms under the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution .

On November 2, 2010, Giffords was re-elected as a member of the House of Representatives in the elections to the 112th Congress . On January 8, 2011, she held a public event in front of a Safeway supermarket in Casas Adobes, north of Tucson . These citizens' questionnaires, called “Congress On Your Corner” , took place regularly.

Course of events and background

The sign pointing to the event in Casas Adobes, AZ

While Giffords was talking to a couple that Saturday morning, Jared Loughner approached the politician and shot her in the back of the head at close range with a semi-automatic Glock 19 . The shot penetrated the victim's skull, but only half of the brain was injured. Loughner continued shooting at the audience. After running out of ammunition, he tried to reload. A full magazine that fell on the floor was taken away by 61-year-old Patricia Maisch, and a passer-by hit the shooter with a folding chair on the head. The 74-year-old ex-Colonel Bill Badger (1936-2015) as well as Maisch and the audience Roger Sulzgeber and Joseph Zamudio overwhelmed the shooter.

Daniel Hernández, an intern on the Giffords MP, immediately provided first aid. Eyewitnesses initially assumed that there was no way she could have survived. So it was said in the first breaking news that she had been shot. Only later did it become clear that she had survived and that she could be operated on immediately by specialists in the hospital. Immediately after the operation, her condition was described as critical, but she was able to respond adequately to simple prompts from the doctors.

The assassin had acquired his weapon legally and equipped it with an enlarged magazine so that, according to witness statements, he could fire 15 to 20 shots at the bystanders. Six people were killed and 13 others injured, some seriously. Federal judge John McCarthy Roll , Gifford's spokesman Gabriel Zimmerman and nine-year-old Christina Taylor-Green were among those killed .

The exact motives of the assassin are still unclear. The police did not initially rule out that an accomplice could have been involved in the crime. However, the questioning of a suspect did not reveal anything, which is why the police are now assuming an individual crime.

According to a report on Fox News appealing to the Department of Homeland Security , there are allegedly indications that Jared Lee Loughner had connections with the far-right American Renaissance . This has not been officially confirmed.

Reactions

Former Republican presidential candidate and US Senator for Arizona, John McCain , said he was "deeply saddened and shocked" that the act was "a shame for Arizona, the country and humanity". On her Facebook page, Sarah Palin , former Republican presidential candidate and critic of Giffords, said she “pray for the victims and their families and for peace and justice”. The House of Representatives in Washington canceled all meetings the following week.

Gifford's husband, astronaut Mark E. Kelly , took off into space on May 16, 2011 on the last space shuttle mission with the Endeavor .

The responsible sheriff Clarence Dupnik, himself a Democrat, used the national media attention to point out that the heated political mood in Arizona was partly to blame for the tragedy. Dupnik commented on this with the words: "We have become a Mecca of hatred and prejudice". He said such a climate had a negative impact on unstable people. The Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth from Louisville / Kentucky spoke of an "attack on democracy".

The radical group Westboro Baptist Church welcomed the attack.

A Democratic bill to limit automatic weapon magazines from 33 to 10 rounds had no prospect of success. Two months after the assassination, Senate Bill 1467 was passed allowing guns to be used in public events in all government buildings in Arizona. Another motion ( Senate Bill 1201 ) provides for weapons to be allowed in schools and on university campuses.

Obama's speech on January 12, 2011

President Obama speaking in Arizona

US President Barack Obama described the attack as a "tragedy for the whole country". The incident was "horrific" and "pointless". His Together We Thrive: Tucson and America speech on January 12, 2011 at the McKale Center at the University of Arizona received nationwide approval, including among the opposition, and was described as a milestone in his presidency.

Controversy over Sarah Palin PAC election campaign

Map showing the constituencies of the 20 Democratic MPs who took the district from a Republican incumbent in 2008, as viewed on the Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee website (Sarahpac.com) from March 2010.

Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee posted a map of the United States on its website from March 2010, showing the location of the constituencies of those Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives who were elected to the constituency of a Congressman in the 2008 election to the United States House of Representatives Republican Party had declined and subsequently voted for Barack Obama's health care reform. This marking was carried out with symbols that were modeled on the crosshairs in sighting devices of firearms.

Shortly after the start of this campaign for the Midterm Elections 2010, Gabrielle Giffords had voiced her concerns about the tenor of this map display, in which her own congressional constituency was also marked. “We're on Sarah Palin's list of 'targets,' but the thing is, the way she put it, we're in the crosshairs of a rifle sight over our district. If people do that, then they have to be aware that there are consequences of such actions, ”Giffords said in March 2010, shortly after her constituency office was vandalized.

This graphic could also be seen on the Sarah Palins Facebook page since March 23 . After this graphic was on Sarah Palin's Facebook page a few hours after the attack, it was then removed.

The graphical representation has been criticized and widely discussed in blogs and broadcasts from cable TV stations. Rebecca Mansour, a member of Palin's staff, said after the removal on the day of the assassination on Tammy Bruce's talk show that the graphic was a political tool that should have been removed after the November election. Mansour dismissed criticism directed at Palin via Twitter. “People are actually blaming Governor Palin for it. It's awful. Terrible. I can't say enough how disgusting it is. ”Mansour went on to say that originally nobody had imagined that anyone could interpret this graphic representation as violence.

Continue

Daniel Hernández, who believed to save Giffords life, is openly gay and serves on the LGBT commission for the city of Tucson. Because of his immediate assistance, he was compared to Oliver Sipple , who was also homosexual and who had saved Gerald Ford's life in an assassination attempt. This had always served the gay community as a cause celèbre for the moral courage of homosexual people and has now been brought to mind, but because of the differences between the two cases, this also caused contradictions.

The shooter's youngest victim, nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green , was born on the day of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks , and was the granddaughter of Dallas Green , a former professional baseball pitcher and manager of the Philadelphia Phillies . She was one of 50 children - one for each state - featured in the 2002 book Faces of Hope - Babies Born On 9/11 .

The US press described the girl's fate as "anchored between two national tragedies" and discussed it. Anne Howard, pastor of the Episcopal Church , wrote in the Huffington Post that Green wanted to meet the House of Representatives to learn about American politics. She then learned “what no child should ever learn”, namely that politics and public life in America have become “a place filled with violence”. In her interest in politics, she was inspired by her date of birth.

For the author of Faces of Hope - Babies Born On 9/11 , Green once symbolized together with the 49 other children portrayed in the book "the hope and the light" that united America as one home after September 11, 2001. Now Green's symbolic life has become a symbolic death that embodies the despair and darkness that envelops a divided America.

Criminal proceedings and detention

Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty and was convicted in November 2012.

The trial against the alleged perpetrator was originally not supposed to take place in Arizona, but in San Diego, California. Since leading federal judge John Roll had also been killed in the attack, his successor Roslyn Silver decided to exclude all Arizona federal judges from the trial in order to maintain impartiality. As a result, the federal judge Larry Burns was ordered from San Diego to Phoenix (Arizona) to lead the criminal case there.

On November 8, 2012, Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced to seven life sentences and 140 years in federal custody. The judgment came about through mutual agreement ; Loughner had pleaded guilty. Loughner, who was initially held in the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix without the possibility of bail , was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Tucson in February 2011 .

Web links

Commons : Tucson Assassination  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

 Wikinews: Assassination of US Congressman Gabrielle Giffords killed several people  - News

 Wikinews: Charges against Tucson Assassin  - Message

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tucson assassination US MP Giffords can smile again Der Spiegel January 18, 2011
2. ↑ Jared Lee Loughner Identified As Gabrielle Giffords Shooter (INFO, VIDEOS)
3. ↑ Gregory Marose: "Not guilty by reason of ...." (English) , The National Archives. June 21, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2015. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Roth, Zachary: Giffords had been target of violent threats ( Memento of January 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Yahoo News. January 8, 2011, accessed January 8, 2011
5. ↑ Attack in Arizona: "We have become a mecca of hatred" - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - Politics
6. ↑ Giffords had history with Palin, Tea Party  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ Giffords, astronaut make long-distance marriage work | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
8. ^ White, Brian: Vandals strike Rep. Giffords' office in Tucson ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . March 22, 2010, accessed January 8, 2011 
9. ^ House Democrat wants to cut Congress pay ( Memento December 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). January 7, 2011
10. ^ Arizona Democrats split on DC gun ban, Arizona Capitol Times, March 21, 2008, accessed January 8, 2011
11. ^ NPR: Rep. Giffords, 5 others killed in Tucson . Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 8, 2011
12. ↑ US MPs shot down at event . Spiegel Online, January 8, 2011
13. ^ Congresswoman's responses after Arizona shooting called encouraging - CNN.com
14. ↑ Arizona shooting: Latest developments - This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
15. ↑ Arizona: Man shoots at US MPs and their employees . Focus Online. January 8, 2011
16. ^ Reports: Judge Roll Received Death Threats - CBS News
17. ^ Reports: Judge Roll Received Death Threats - CBS News
18. ↑ The shooter from Tucson acted as a single perpetrator NZZ Online, January 10, 2011
19. ↑ American Renaissance Denies DHS Charges, Any Affiliation With Shooter, a report at Fox News, online at politics.blogs.foxnews.com ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 12, 2011 
20. ↑ Official: DHS has not determined any possible ties between Arizona shooter and right wing group, online at: voices.washingtonpost.com , accessed January 12, 2011
21. ↑ ^{a b} Spiegel: Untitled (accessed on January 9).
22. ↑ A receipt is still missing here.
23. ^ Mission STS-134 ( English ) May 16, 2011. Accessed May 17, 2011.
24. ↑ CNN.com: Shooting throws spotlight on state of US political rhetoric
25. ↑ Arizona Shooting - Many People Killed  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
26. ↑ derstandard.at: Right-wing extremist priest praises the Arizona assassin , accessed on February 27, 2011
27. ↑ Jana Simon: Tucson Assassination: The Man They Called Crazy. DIE ZEIT, March 10, 2011, accessed on December 18, 2012 . 
28. ↑ Yahoo: yahoo.de ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed January 9). 
29. ^ Howard Kurtz: Obama's Next Impossible Speech . In: The Daily Beast , January 13, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
30. ^ ^{A b} Carl Hulse, Kate Zernike: Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics (English) . In: The New York Times , January 8, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011. " We're in Sarah Palin's 'targeted' list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there are consequences to that action. " 
31. ↑ Photius Coutsoukis: Screenshot of Sarah Palin's Facebook Page Prior to Removal of Her "Cross Hairs" Map ( English ) articlesurfing.org. January 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
32. ↑ Ben Quinn, Paul Gallagher: US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot as six die in Arizona massacre (English) . In: The Guardian , January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
33. ^ Mark Preston: Adviser: Linking Palin to shootings 'appalling' (English) . In: CNN , January 9, 2001. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
34. ^ Mary Elizabeth Williams: The Giffords shooting's gay, Hispanic hero . In: Salon , January 10, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
35. ↑ Christine Pisera Naman: Faces of Hope - Babies Born On 9/11 . HCI, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7573-0097-4 , p. 41 (accessed January 22, 2011).
36. ↑ Cindy Boren: Christina-Taylor Green, granddaughter of Dallas Green, dies in Arizona shooting (English) . In: The Early Lead , The Washington Post, January 9, 2010. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
37. ↑ Krissah Thompson, Theola Labbé-DeBose: Christina-Taylor Green, 9-year-old killed in Tucson, remembered, mourned (English) , The Washington Post . January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. " Christina-Taylor Green's short life was pinned between two national tragedies: She was born Sept. 11, 2001, and she died as a gunman apparently targeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D- Ariz.) Shot 20 people in Tucson. " 
38. ↑ Emily Friedman: Mother of Christina-Taylor Green, Shot at Tucson Event, Says Daughter Wanted to Go Into Politics (English) , American Broadcasting Company . January 10, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
39. ^ Joseph Berger: Born on Sept. 11, Claimed by a New Horror (English) , The New York Times . January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
40. ^ Anne Howard: Elegy for Christina Taylor Green 9/11/01 - 1/8/11 (English) , The Huffington Post . January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. " She wanted to meet her Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, and learn more about politics. She did. She learned what no child should ever learn. She learned that politics in America, or rather, public life in America, has become a place fraught with violence. " 
41. ↑ Stephanie Innes: Born, died between 2 tragedies (English) , Arizona Daily Star . January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2011. 
42. ↑ Christina Taylor Green: a symbolic life tragically cut short (English) . January 9, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. “ For the author of the book, Christine Naman, Green and the other 9/11 babies represented 'the hope and the light that was uniting our country as one home'. But at around 10.10am local time on Saturday, in Tucson Arizona, Green's symbolic life became a symbolic death, epitomising the despair and darkness engulfing a disunited America. " 
43. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/jared-loughner-sentenced_n_2092550.html
44. ↑ Jerry Markon: Federal court authorities plan to move trial of Tucson shooting suspect . In: The Washington Post , January 17, 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2011. 

Coordinates: 32 ° 20 ′ 9.3 ″  N , 110 ° 58 ′ 30.9 ″  W.