On January 8, 2011, US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot during a constituent meeting held in the parking lot of the Safeway store at the Oracle Place Shopping Center in Casas Adobes, near Tucson, Arizona.
Giffords was shot in the head at close range and taken to hospital in critical condition. Eighteen others were shot at the event, six fatally, including Gabe Zimmerman, who was one of Giffords’ staffers, federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll, and a 9-year-old girl. Giffords underwent surgery to treat her injuries, followed by intensive rehabilitation therapy. In January 2012, she resigned from her congressional seat in order to concentrate on recovering from her brain injury.
The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old Tucson man, was detained at the scene and arrested by police. He had deliberately targeted Giffords and was later diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. At his trial in November 2012, he was sentenced to life plus 140 years in federal prison.
