Jan. 8 Shooting Reports Released

Listen to Fernanda Echavarri's report on the investigative records:

Jared Loughner repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to the Pima County sheriff's deputy who took him into custody at the scene of the Jan. 8, 2011 Tucson shooting, Sheriff's Department records show.

Officer T. Audetat Jr. is quoted in the report as saying he handcuffed Loungher and took him to his patrol car, placing him in the back seat.

" ... he stated over and over that he pleads the Fifth," the report quotes Audetat as saying. "I assumed that he meant he is pleading the Fifth Amendment and that he did not want to talk to anyone. I did not ask him any questions.

"One of the other times I opened the door, I noticed the suspect had earplugs in his ears. They were peach in color and were the soft, disposable foam kind that are very common."

Once Loughner was in the patrol car he told the officer he was "kind of hot" so the deputy removed Loughner's beanie and hooded sweatshirt. At that point Loughner said, "I just want you to know that I'm the only person that knew about this."

"This was the only thing, pretty much, that he said to me almost all day," Audetat is quoted in the report as saying.

The report says that Audetat drove Loughner to the Sheriff's Department Foothills District Office on Shannon Road.

Gabrielle Giffords.

The reports and other documents released Wednesday relate to the investigation of the shooting in which six people were killed and 13 were wounded, including former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and current U.S. Rep. Ron Barber. Barber succeeded Giffords in office after she resigned to recover from her wound.

The 2,700 pages of records were released after the Arizona Daily Star went to court to get them unsealed. The judge in the case kept authorities from releasing the records, but cleared the way after the criminal case against Loughner was concluded.

Loughner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven life terms plus 140 years and is currently at a federal prison hospital in Missouri.

Giffords released a statement Wednesday in reaction to the reports' release, saying in part: "The details released today regarding the shooting in Tucson reaffirm what this country already knew: The mentally disturbed young man who shot me and murdered six should never have had access to a gun."

Arizona Public Media and The Associated Press provided these further details from the Loughner records Wednesday:

LOUGHNER

About 10 hours after the shooting, he asked politely if he could use the restroom, saying “please” and “thank you” to the officers who were in the interview room with him.

From about 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 8, sheriff's detectives checked on Loughner continuously, the reports say, each time asking him to move, sit down or walk to another room. He complied. At one point, a detective said to him: “What we’re going to do is, we’re going to switch out the, uh, restraints on you. All right?" Loughner responded: “OK, I’m not going to move."

Just after 9 p.m. on Jan. 8, the Sheriff's Department handed over custody of Loughner to the FBI. As he was being escorted out of the interview room, he said, “I’d like to sign something, a paper.” He was told there was nothing to sign, and he responded, “All righty.”

GUNMAN'S MOTHER

Loughner’s mother, Amy, seemed confused when detectives spoke with her at 2 p.m. the day of the shooting, according to transcripts of her interview. She described her son as a loner and said his behavior had been “not normal."

“He had kind of like, talked to himself. We’d hear him having conversations with himself. Or…a while ago, he was like, he was making all kind of noises,” she said.

For more than a year, she said, Loughner would sometimes look like was having a conversation with someone “right there,” when he talked to himself at home.

Amy Loughner said she told her son “he needed to go see someone about it.”

When detectives asked about firearms, Amy Loughner said her son had a shotgun but “we took it away from him… ‘cause, at the time when, um, the incident with, the school … they recommended, they told us … if there’s any firearms in the house, that we should put them away.”

The school is Pima Community College, where Loughner was a student until the fall of 2010. Pima officials suspended Loughner because of disruptive behavior and delivered a letter to his house saying he needed a mental evaluation before coming back.

In the interview, Amy Loughner said that not long before the shooting, she wondered if her son was taking methamphetamines because his behavior was so odd. Loughner mentioned to his mother that he had quit drinking alcohol five months prior to the shooting, Amy Loughner told detectives.

GUNMAN'S FATHER

Randy Loughner said his son became increasingly difficult, and 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," he said "Lost, lost, and just didn't want to communicate with me no more." He said his son has never been diagnosed with mental illness but he "just doesn't seem right lately."

MENTAL ILLNESS

Despite their son's increasingly bizarre behavior, Loughner's parents never sent him to get help. Randy Loughner said that his son had never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Had he seen a doctor, the detective asked. "No," replied the father. The parents were also asked about any journals or writings that Loughner kept. The father said they were written in an indecipherable script.

GOING TO THE SCENE

Loughner went to a convenience store immediately before the shooting and had the clerk call a cab for him. As he waited for the car, he was pacing inside and outside the store and went to the bathroom three or four times. The employee said that as Loughner was waiting for the cab, he looked up at a clock and said, "9:25, I still got time."

TRAFFIC STOP

Loughner was pulled over earlier in the day for a traffic violation by a wildlife agent. He cried and said, "I've just had a rough time," and then composed himself, thanked the agent and shook his hand after he was let go with a warning. The agent asked Loughner again if he was OK, and Loughner said he was going home.

THE SCENE

Daniel Hernandez.

AZPM

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.

"I did some training as a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a phlebotomist, um, when I was in high school. So I knew that we need to see if she's got a pulse. She was still breathing. Her breathing was getting shallower. Uh, I then lifted her up so that she wasn't flat on the ground against the wall," he said.

WITNESSES

Bill Badger, one of the people who was wounded and who helped subdue Loughner, was quoted as saying that Loughner said nothing, but simply walked up and started shooting.

Badger said he was about 20 people back in line to meet and visit with Giffords at her meeting with constituents. He and another man had restrained Loughner on the ground and someone was standing with a foot on the gun. Badger is quoted as saying: "But if he had got that gun and reloaded we would have all been in trouble."

Bill Badger.

AZPM

Badger described the magazine for ammunition as 10-12 inches long, "way below the bottom of the gun"

Ken Dorushka, who also was wounded, said in a witness statement taken at St. Mary's Hospital that he had gone to thank Giffords for voting for the Affordable Care Act and then do some grocery shopping. He was shot in the arm.

While waiting for officers inside Safeway, Dorushka sat in a chair and was given paper towels to put on his bleeding arm. The bullet fell out of the sleeve of his jacket. He asked officers if he could have the bullet. "I'd really like to have it as a souvenir," he said. The officer responded, "Probably not."

Listen to Andrea Kelly's report on the shooting witnesses statements to detectives:

Owen McMahon, who was there with his dad, mom and sister, took photos of the scene, as did his dad. In his witness statement there is much discussion about the photos, where the camera is and what he took photos of. The officer interviewing him is concerned whether he has evidence, photos of anything specific. He said his dad took a photo of Giffords, "but you can't see her face."

GUNS

Loughner bought a 12-gauge shotgun in 2008, but his parents took it away from him after he was expelled from college and administrators recommended that any firearms be taken away. The shotgun was the only firearm his parents knew Loughner owned.

CARING FOR GIFFORDS

A firefighter described how he cared for Giffords after arriving at the scene. "You'd ask her to grab your hand and she would grab your hand," he said. He and paramedics rushed her to the hospital in an ambulance, giving her oxygen and an IV.

THE ENCOUNTER

Hernandez described how constituents and other people were lining up to see Giffords, and he was helping people sign in. He recalled handing Loughner a clipboard. "The next thing I hear is someone yell gun," he said.

LOUGHNER FRIEND

One-time Loughner friend Zachary Osler was an employee at a store where the gunman later bought a Glock before the shooting. He was questioned about seeing Loughner shopping inside, sometime before Thanksgiving. He describes an awkward encounter with his former friend.

"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, "He would say he could dream and then control what he was doing while he was dreaming." Osler says Loughner never mentioned Giffords to him.

REACTION

Osler said when he learned that Loughner was the suspect in the shooting, "my jaw just dropped. And I was like I know this person. Why he would do it? What would his motive be? If he had people help him? I do not know."

POSSESSIONS

Police reports show what authorities found in Loughner's possession after the shooting. In Loughner's left front pocket were two magazines for a Glock. They were both fully loaded. In his other front pocket was a foldable knife with about a 4-inch blade. In his back right pocket, he had a baggie with some money, a Visa credit card and his Arizona driver's license. He was wearing a black beanie, a black hoodie-type sweatshirt, khaki pants and Sketchers shoes.

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