Federal charges filed in Giffords shooting

TUCSON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The young Arizona man suspected of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six others was charged Sunday with killing federal employees.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tucson filed five counts against Jared Lee Loughner, 22, the Tucson Sentinel reported. Two counts involve the killings of U.S. District Judge John Roll and Gabriel Zimmerman, a Giffords aide, while the others are for attempting to kill a member of Congress and two other federal workers.

CNN reported court documents released Sunday revealed Loughner wrote "my assassination" and "I planned ahead" on an envelope investigators found in a safe in the home where he lived with his parents.

A federal agent's affidavit filed as part of the criminal complaint against Loughner said authorities also found a letter from Giffords thanking him for attending a 2007 event.

"Also recovered in the safe was an envelope with handwriting on the envelope stating 'I planned ahead,' and 'my assassination' and the name 'Giffords,' along with what appears to be Loughner's signature," the affidavit said.

Loughner had Judy Clarke appointed as his public defender, a federal judicial source told CNN. Clarke represented Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber," and worked on the defense team for Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The network said Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Loughner, who had been suspended from a junior college in Tucson last fall after multiple encounters with campus police, is not cooperating with investigators. He is to appear in federal court in Phoenix Monday.

Investigators now believe Loughner had no accomplice in the mass shooting outside a Tucson supermarket where Giffords was meeting constituents. They said Loughner took a cab to the store and went inside with the driver to get change, but the driver did not know what he intended.

Giffords is believed to have been the major target, but 13 people were injured along with those who were killed.

Giffords remained in critical condition Sunday. At a news conference at University Medical Center in Tucson, a spokesman said doctors were "cautiously optimistic" about her recovery.

Those killed have been identified as Roll, 63, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for Arizona; Zimmerman, 30; Christina Green, 9; Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; and Phyllis Schneck, 79.

The gunman still had bullets when subdued by two people in the crowd and "probably would have shot other people had he not been tackled," Dupnik said.

The local sheriff lamented what he sees as the caustic effect the nasty tone of the rhetoric from some quarters has had on society.

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry … it is getting to be outrageous," Dupnik said. "And unfortunately, Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."