Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman, was shot in the head at point blank range by a gunman who opened fire on a public meeting that she was holding in Tucson, Arizona today.
At least 11 others including some of her staff members were reported to have been injured, some seriously, and there were reports that between four and six people had died. There were conflicting reports over whether Miss Gifford had herself been killed. ..
Miss Giffords, 40, who is married to astronaut Mark Kelly, was talking to a couple outside a Safeway grocery store when the attacker ran up and opened fire indiscriminately.
She was shot point blank in the head. At least 11 other people were reported to have been killed or injured in the rampage which occurred mid-morning local time.
Andrea Gooden, an eyewitness who was working across the road from the scene, said: “I heard about 15 shots. Then there were people racing across the parking lot.” She said there were many sheriffs and firefighters on the scene within minutes.
A respected US website reported another eye-witness, Steven Rayle, who was on the scene at the time of the shooting and helped to hold the suspect down while waiting for police. He told Gawker.com: “The event was very informal: Gifford had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20-30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Gifford in the head first.”
According to Mr Rayle, who is a former emergency room doctor, Gifford was able to move her hands after being shot.
Miss Giffords had been named as a political campaign target for conservatives in November’s elections by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for her strong support for the health reforms of President Barack Obama.
Mrs Palin had published a “target map” on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Miss Giffords, for backing the new health care law.
The congresswoman, who is Jewish, is a gun-owner and supporter of the right to bear arms. She was also a strong advocate of abortion rights. She nonetheless won re-election to her third term in Congress.
Law enforcement officials told local media that a suspect was in custody. Witnesses said that the gunman was tackled to the ground by a bystander as he attempted to flee the scene of the shooting.
Mr Rayle, who a former emergency room doctor, said Miss Giffords was able to move her hands after being shot.
Miss Giffords, who was first elected to Congress in 2006 and was re-elected for a third time in November, had just returned from Washington to Arizona after being sworn in to the new House.
She had sent a message on the social networking site Twitter inviting constituent to a “Congress on Your Corner” event. “Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later,” she wrote. In a message earlier in the day, she said: “So good to be home. Happy New Year!”
Her husband is a veteran of the Desert Storm military campaign against Iraq and the couple have two children. Mr Kelly was the commander of the Endeavour, the final planned mission of the American space shuttle programme which flew in 2008. His twin brother Scott is also a NASA astronaut.
Born in Tucson, Miss Giffords was a strong supporter of the right to bear arms. She was a target of conservative Republican campaigning for her enthusiastic backing of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms and last year complained that her office in Tucson had been attacked by vandals.
It is believed to be the first time that a woman politician has been the object of an assassination attempt in America, a country where elected leaders have often been the subject of attacks.
US President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead while at the theatre with his wife in 1865. Another US president, James Garfield, was assassinated in 1881.
President John F Kennedy was shot while driving through Dallas, Texas, in an open topped car in November 1963. His brother Robert, a senator and presidential candidate was shot dead in 1968.
President Ronald Reagan survived an attempted assassination in 1981, when John Hinckley Jnr fired shots at him in the hope of impressing the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed.
The black nationalist leader Malcolm X was killed while addressing a crowd in New York city in February 1965, while Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the States, was shot dead in November 1978.
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