Report: Footage Of Tucson Shooting Exists, Depicts Judge Roll’s Heroic Last Moments

by Alex Alvarez | 10:50 am, January 19th, 2011

» 3 comments

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has revealed that video footage exists of the Tucson, Arizona shooting that left six people dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords recovering from a gunshot to the head.

The brief video shows the gunman shooting Giffords at close range before turning his gun on several others assembled in front of a Tucson Safeway. The Congresswoman was standing near a wall when the gunman quickly approached her, raised his weapon, fired a bullet into her forehead from one or two feet away, then turned and began shooting into the crowd. It also reveals that Judge John Roll lost his life while trying to save one of Giffords’ employees, Ronald Barber, shielding Barber from the gunman with his body.

The New York Times reports that the sheriff department’s investigative and operational bureau chief, Richard Kastigar, said that, as he sees it, the video shows that Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old arrested for the crime, “was very deliberate in my estimation, very calculated” as he approached Giffords with his gun hidden from view, possibly beneath his clothing.

Surveillance footage from the day of the shooting also exists, showing Loughner inside the Safeway, motioning to one of the supermarket’s clerks that he cannot hear because he is wearing earplugs. Those same earplugs were removed by police who wrestled Loughner to the ground after the shooting. Loughner had entered the Safeway to get change for the cab he had arrived in about 15 minutes before he shot Giffords.

Arizona shooting, Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner, John Roll, video

Jerps

I will be one of many who will watch this footage when it’s released.
jrcmi

Everything I’ve heard and read indicates that Judge Roll was an honorable, hard-working and devoutly religious person. We can now add “hero” to that description.

In the Catholic Church, an individual like Roll who dies after recently receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion is said to be in a “state of grace.” I hope this gives his family some comfort.

We all too often use public servants like Roll as scapegoats for all of the real or imagined ills of our government. While some are certainly no “bargain,” many are like Roll – people who almost certainly could have made more money in the private sector but chose to serve.
gottosay

I want to believe there are heroes out there…I cannot give up on America and humanity