Tag Archive | "congresswoman"

Arizona College Thought Lougner Had a Gun


Emails sent by an Arizona college were released due to a court order regarding the Tucson shooting rampage. The emails show that campus police have already been worried about the behavior of the suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, and that they were concerned he was armed.

One of the emails from Pima Community College, the Arizona College Loughner attended, showed that one of the campus police officers contacted federal firearms officials asking if Loughner owned firearms. The Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives officials replied to the email and said they had no records on Loughner.

Months before the shootout on January 8, the exchange of emails between the Arizona College and the police indicate that the school knew about Loughner’s disturbing and bizarre behavior. The school expelled Loughner in September 2010.

According to the emails that were released on Thursday, the college alerted local police more than five times regarding Loughner’s behavior while he was still in school. One of the reported cases is the February 2010 incident wherein Loughner made uncalled-for comments in class. He reportedly talked about abortion, strapping bombs to infants, and killing people.

During the same month, a student told college authorities that she saw Loughner place a knife on his desk while in class. The event prompted a professor to warn that the school must do everything to remove Loughner from the campus.

Loughner is the primary suspect for open shooting on Congresswoman Giffords and the killing of six people. He has pleaded not guilty to all 49 charges which include two counts of murder of a federal employee.

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Giffords Cleared to See Her Husband’s Launch


On Monday, doctors of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords confirmed that she may fly to Florida this week to send off  her husband to space. Gifford’s husband is the space commander of space shuttle Endeavour. However, the congresswoman has to immediately return to the hospital to continue her rehabilitation.

TIRR Memorial Hermann doctors said that Giffords is medically stable and able to travel. In fact, they view this trip to see her husband as part of her rehabilitation. The congresswoman was shot to the head a few months back and is still under the hospital’s rehabilitative program. Dr. Dong Kim, director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute in the hospital, said that he does not see any reason why this trip should pose additional risk to Gifford’s health.

The last time the congresswoman was in an aircraft was when she was flown from Arizona, where she was given immediate treatment following the shoot-out, to Houston, where her current rehabilitation is taking place. Dr. Kim, however, emphasized that Giffords will no longer be flying thru ambulance transport.

C.J. Karamrgin, the congresswoman’s spokesperson, said that they are very pleased with the announcement. Her entire staffs believe that this will be another major milestone in her rehabilitation as she has been looking forward to the launch even before the accident.

President Barack Obama and the first lady will also watch the launch but there are no reports yet if they will be watching it with Giffords. The families, including the congresswoman, will watch the Endeavour take off from a restricted area and Giffords has no plans of a public appearance.

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