Gunman's parents express regret as a shocked Arizona mourns

Tucson: As Tucson scrambled to prepare for President Barack Obama's scheduled appearance at a memorial service for the victims of the weekend's mass shooting, the parents of the alleged gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, offered their first public statement on Tuesday, insisting the attack left them as perplexed as anyone else.

From the home they shared with their son in a working-class neighbourhood, Randy and Amy Loughner released a statement calling it "a very difficult time" and spoke of their deep sorrow.

"There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so that we could make you feel better," the Loughners said. "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."

The alleged gunman's motives for shooting US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others remain unclear, though he had grown increasingly paranoid, friends said.

One said Loughner was influenced by films alleging that the collection of income tax is illegal and that the terrorist attacks of 2001 were staged by the government. A law enforcement official said on Tuesday that a note was found in Loughner's safe that said: "Die, Bitch."

Later, the Pima County Sheriff's Department corrected its tally of the wounded. Nineteen people were shot, the department said, not 20 as had been reported. Six died, and 13 were wounded. And Giffords' office released photos of her and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, holding hands in her hospital room. The photos added a poignancy to Arizona's latest turn in the national stage.

Some critics, angered by the state's aggressive anti-immigration stand and hard-right politics, have pointed to the mass shooting as evidence that Arizona is a place of intolerance and Tombstone justice.

Rising determination

But there was also a rising sentiment and determination here that Arizona's latest turn in the spotlight will be not another black eye, but a chance for a recalibration of the state's image.

The state has mustered an immediate and unified response, for instance, to reports that a church is planning to picket the funerals of shooting victims. Tucson's Democratic and Republican parties joined to organise a blockade of counter-protesters, and Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill restricting the church's activities — a bill that sailed through the normally rancorous state Legislature with ease.

Amid the efforts to heal, there were also new fragments that emerged about Loughner's life. He lived with his parents near Interstate 10, north of downtown Tucson. The home, more than any other on Soledad Avenue, was decorated with plants native to the nearby Sonoran Desert.

Loughner's mother, Amy, appears to have been the family's primary breadwinner as a manager of a park in northeast Tucson on the site of a hot springs once used as a recuperation site. She earns $25.69 (Dh94.3) an hour. Jared Loughner was periodically seen walking his dog around the neighbourhood. But neighbours said the family had grown increasingly reclusive.

Loughner had repeatedly exhibited unusual behaviour. A friend said he was picked on in high school and devastated by a break-up with a girlfriend, had distanced himself from reality and was abusing drugs.