Records detail shooter's agitation before Ariz. rampage

Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY | USATODAY

TUCSON — As Jared Loughner moved closer to the day he would shoot then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, his behavior became so disturbed and erratic that his father would disable his car at night to keep him home, according to information in 2,700 pages of investigative records in the shooting rampage released Wednesday.

According to Loughner's father, Randy, his son's behavior began to change dramatically after he was kicked out of Pima Community College in fall 2010 for an inflammatory video he had posted online, the documents show.

"(Randy Loughner) stated that (Jared Loughner) had become more and more distant from them, and he would not communicate with Mr. Loughner about much of anything," an investigator wrote.

Yet despite recommendations from Pima Community College officials that their son undergo a mental evaluation, his parents apparently didn't follow up on it.

Randy and Amy Loughner, the young man's intensely private parents, have never spoken publicly about their son's crime, and they did not respond to an inquiry this week.

Leading up to the slaying, Jared Loughner had became increasingly paranoid about government and developed a hostile obsession with Giffords. At a federal prison hospital after the shootings Jan. 8, 2011, Jared Loughner was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had delusions so severe that he interrupted initial court proceedings.

He received medication, sometimes involuntarily, so he would be competent enough to stand trial.

He is 24 and pleaded guilty last year to numerous felonies stemming from the shootings that critically wounded Giffords and killed U.S. District Judge John Roll. He is serving seven consecutive life prison terms, plus 140 years, without possibility of parole and was able to fend off a possible death sentence with his guilty pleas.

Immediately after the shootings, Amy Loughner told investigators that she and her husband, on the advice of Pima college officials, took a 12-gauge shotgun away from their son after he was kicked out the school and had him tested for drugs because his behavior was so strange. The shotgun, which their son had owned since 2008, was the only firearm his parents knew he owned.

"We told him that he needed to see someone," Amy Loughner said. "His behavior is not normal. … We'd hear him having conversations with himself. Or, or, or just, we, a while ago, he was like, he, he was making all kinds of noises."

The Loughner family quickly acknowledged to investigators that they had lost control of their son long before the shootings.

Randy Loughner said it was a challenge to have a rational conversation with him.

"I tried to talk to him. But you can't. He wouldn't let you," the father said. "Lost, lost and just didn't want to communicate with me no more."

Pima County Sheriff's officials, who investigated the case jointly with the FBI, withheld the crime reports under a federal court order for two years. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns had decided while the murder case was pending that publication of investigative materials might jeopardize the defendant's right to a fair trial.

Burns recently lifted his seal at the behest of The Arizona Republic; KPNX-TV, Phoenix; and other media. This release closes a two-year legal battle.

Since the deadly spree in the northern Tucson suburb of Casa Adobes, law enforcement agents, medical experts, the media and public have dissected and psychoanalyzed Jared Loughner's life in an effort to understand why a troubled young man went ballistic.

The newly released documents offer the clearest information yet on what happened.

Jared Loughner's father did not disable the car the night before the shootings and heard his son drive away around 6 a.m. When Jared Loughner returned home more than an hour later, his father saw him take a black bag out of the trunk of his Chevrolet Nova.

His father could see what appeared to be "something placed inside of the front pockets of the hoodie" his son was wearing, according to the documents.

Randy Loughner questioned Jared about the items in the bag and his pockets inside the family home.

"Jared proceeded to turn around immediately and 'bolt' out of the residence," according to the documents. "Mr. Loughner stated that he chased after Jared, but was unable to catch him on foot; therefore, retrieved his keys to his vehicle. He began driving the neighborhood in an attempt to locate Jared."

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He located his son, prompting Jared to run off into the desert with the bag. Jared later walked to a convenience store where a cab driver picked him up and drove him to a shopping center where Giffords was meeting with constituents.

In the first frenzied moments after Jared Loughner shot the congresswoman and sprayed the crowd with gunfire on that Saturday morning, some were shouting to kill the gunman as horrified victims dragged him to the ground, disarmed him and held him until police arrived.

"The gun fell on the ground, I grabbed the gun and the clip fell out," Vietnam veteran Kenneth Veeder said. "He was reloading. And the lady grabbed it and I said, 'Give me the clips, I'm gonna shoot the son of a (expletive).' "

Veeder told detectives he had a combat reaction to the events unfolding before him.

Once Loughner was taken into police custody, he wanted to make clear he acted alone.

" 'I just want you to know that I'm the only person that knew about this.' That was the only thing, pretty much, that (Loughner) said to me almost all day," an investigator wrote.

The files offer a window into the anguish of those affected.

Before the funeral of the youngest victim, 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, her father asked authorities if the family could have the earrings and iPod she had with her when she was shot, detectives said. The iPod apparently had pictures the family wanted.

A detective was able to get the earrings from the FBI. Police quickly made copies of pictures contained on the iPod. They made 8-by-10 copies and a computer disc of the images to give to the family.

"I took those two items up to the Green family home where I made contact with Mr. Green and handed those items over to him," an officer identified as B.S. Foust said, according to the files. "I also briefly spoke to Ms. Green at that time. She indicated a desire to know if at a time down the road she would be able to get her daughter's clothing. She said that it was a 'Mom thing' and she really wanted to have them."

The neighbor who took Christina-Taylor to the event was haunted by the scene even as she slept, according to her husband.

Coming out of sedation, Susan Hileman asked her husband, "How is Christina? What happened to Christina?" He had to tell her that the girl had died.

As Hileman slept in the hospital that evening, her husband described "a cry of 'Christina, Christina, let's get out of here. Am I dying? Am I dying?' " In her sleep, Hileman spoke over and over of how she and Christina-Taylor squeezed each other's hands when they were on the ground, face to face with their eyes locked on one another.

After Jared Loughner shot Giffords in the head at point-blank range, he turned his 9mm pistol on bystanders and continued firing 31 more times until his magazine was empty. Police found two fully loaded Glock magazines in the gunman's left front pocket. In his other front pocket was a foldable knife with a 4-inch blade.

On Christmas Eve 2010, Jared Loughner went to a longtime friend's apartment to show off the gun he had just purchased, saying it was for "home self-defense," according to statements the friends gave to investigators.

"When Jared showed him the weapon, he asked Jared to leave because of the fact of it," the report states. "(The other friend) questioned his reason for having such a large-capacity magazine and what he intended to do. He advised Jared stated he would use it for home self-defense."

Among other findings from the documents:

• Zachary Osler was an employee at a store where Loughner bought a Glock before the shooting. He had been Loughner's friend. He was questioned about seeing his former friend shopping inside, sometime before Thanksgiving, and described an awkward encounter. "His response is nothing. Just a mute facial expression. And just like he, he didn't care." Osler told investigators he had grown uncomfortable with Loughner's personality.

• Loughner cried and was unusually emotional during a traffic stop less than three hours before the shooting. The officer who stopped him checked his registration and opted not to ticket him in part because the officer needed to go somewhere else. "The driver's face got kind of screwed up, and he started to cry," the officer said. Loughner told him, "I've just had a rough time."

• Shooting victim Bill Badger described being shot. "When I looked, he was just shooting at the people. And, and everybody started to duck. And just as I ducked, I felt the bullet hit the back of my head. It just burned the back of my head. And the next thing I knew he was coming right in front of me."

• Giffords' intern Daniel Hernandez helped tend to his boss after she was shot in the head. In an interview, he described the chaos: "She couldn't open her eyes. I tried to get any responses for her. Um, it looked like her left side was the only side that was still mobile. Um, she couldn't speak. It was mumbled. She was squeezing my hand."

Loughner had a record of drug and alcohol abuse but no violence. His only citations were for misdemeanors — possession of drug paraphernalia in 2007 and for spraying graffiti on a street sign in 2008. Army recruiters rejected him. He was a high school dropout and had a failed work history that included jobs at a fast-food restaurant and as a dog walker.

By 2010, Loughner had become alienated from friends, an Internet loner posting messages of hate and suicide.

He was suspended from Pima Community College after five contacts with campus police because of classroom disruptions and a bizarre video he posted on YouTube in which he ranted about the "genocide school." By then, he favored satanic music and had begun espousing conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attack and government control of grammar.

He wrote about the ability to manipulate dreams, a favorite pastime.

The Tucson shooting was among several in recent U.S. history that spurred debate over firearms regulation. Giffords, who was hospitalized for months, resigned from her congressional seat because of the severe brain injury.

"The mentally disturbed young man who shot me and murdered six should never have had access to a gun," Giffords said Wednesday in a statement in response to the records release. "No one piece of legislation will end all gun violence, just like no one piece of legislation would have prevented the Tucson shooting. However, I hope that common-sense policies like universal background checks become part of our history, just like the Tucson shootings are."

She has formed a gun-control advocacy group with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly.

Dennis Wagner reports for The Arizona Republic. Contributing: The Associated Press.