After a prolonged silence, the parents of Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old who is accused of killing six people and injuring 14 others during an apparent assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Saturday, released a statement yesterday regarding their son and the tragic shooting: "There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were so we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday. We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss."
More strange and unnerving details have emerged about Loughner: police discovered a series of handwritten messages in "a locked box of some kind." Among those scrawlings were notes reading "Die cops" and "Die bitch," found near an envelope that said "Giffords" and "my assassination." Pima County Sheriff's Operations Bureau Chief Rick Kastigar also reported that Loughner's father had caught him with a black bag Saturday morning, the day of the shooting, and asked what he was doing: "Jared apparently mumbled something and left hurriedly. The dad attempted to follow, and Jared darted off in the desert (on foot)."
The Wall Street Journal examined 131 online-forum postings written by Loughner in the "Earth Empires" gaming forum between April and June 2010, which further reveals a troubled, unstable young man. Loughner complains about problems finding a job, being rejected by women, and a general, fundamental aggression. Among the postings, Loughner wrote, "Does anyone have aggression 24/7?", "If you went to prison right now...What would you be thinking?", "Would you hit a Handy Cap Child/ Adult?", and "I bet your hungry....Because i know how to cut a body open and eat you for more then a week. ;-)"
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who has been in critical condition since she was shot in the head during the attack, is reportedly improving. Her doctors reported that she is now able to breathe on her own and put her odds of survival at "101%." And her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, released a photo of him at her bedside, holding his wife's hand.
