By Simon Mann
TUCSON: Two scenes, kilometres apart in Arizona’s southernmost metropolis, spoke volumes of a city coming to grips with the trauma of mass murder.
Outside a Safeway supermarket in Casas Adobes, an FBI forensic team continued annotating the scene of Saturday’s shootings as a handful of shoppers passed warily.
”This was hell,” said a local cafe worker, three days after 20 people were struck down, six fatally.
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But 15 kilometres away, outside the University Medical Centre where the survivors, including the congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, were being treated, a makeshift memorial was being constructed of candles, cards and bouquets to commemorate lives lost while urging the recovery of those with grave injuries.
Those who added their tributes talked of the decency of Tucson’s multicultural community, which has rallied strongly since Saturday, when prosecutors say Jared Loughner unloaded more than 30 rounds from his semi-automatic pistol into a small political gathering.
”We miss you John: keep fighting Gabby,” read a note, referring to the slain federal judge John Roll and Ms Giffords, a Democratic representative. Many of the cards spoke to nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, whose death seemed inexplicable.
Few tributes were political. But some addressed suggestions that America’s vitriolic political debate had played a part. ”To the media personalities who promote hateful speech and imagery (you know who you are), STOP IT,” read one. ”To the [Arizona] legislators who are permitting easy access to guns, STOP IT.”
Tucson’s response underscored the delicate line that Barack Obama was expected to tread at a memorial service in the city on Wednesday, local time, in which he was expected to talk about tolerance.
Commentators said the President was likely to seek to unite the nation by focusing on its potential rather than its shortcomings. They compared the speech to that delivered by Bill Clinton in 1995 after the Oklahoma bombing, suggesting it could similarly reinvigorate the President’s agenda and prospects for re-election in 2012.
But new details of the shooting added to the city’s grief. A sheriff’s office official told Associated Press that an additional note found at the home of 22-year-old Mr Loughner read ”Die, bitch”, a likely reference to Ms Giffords, who investigators believe was his primary target.
The comment, as well as ”Die cops”, was written on a letter from Ms Giffords that thanked Mr Loughner for attending a 2007 campaign event, where he had asked questions. Other notes found in a safe at his home, already disclosed, included ”I planned ahead”, ”My assassination” and ”Giffords”.
The local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, said Mr Loughner’s father had seen his son take a black bag from car boot on Saturday before leaving on foot. Mr Loughner later took a taxi to the supermarket where Ms Giffords was meeting constituents.
Mr Loughner’s parents, Randy and Amy Loughner, who have not left their home since the tragedy, issued a statement that spoke to the depth of their despair.
”This is a very difficult time for us,” it read. ”There are no words that can possibly express how we feel … We don’t understand why this happened.
”We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss.”
Law enforcement sources told CBS that the Loughners knew their son was becoming increasingly troubled but were ”completely surprised” when he was accused of the shootings.
The New York Times reported that the police were sent to the home where Jared Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack.
Source: www.smh.com.au
