Motel clerk: Loughner was frightening

TUCSON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Jared Lee Loughner seemed "just messed up" when he checked into a Motel 6 in Tucson 10 hours before he allegedly killed six people, a desk clerk says.

Loughner checked out a few hours later, before the sun rose, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Just after 10 a.m. he allegedly opened fire outside a Tucson Safeway, critically wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people.

The Post cited sources involved in the investigation who are tracing Loughner's movements overnight. After renting the motel room, he apparently did not spend much time there, instead stopping at Walgreens to pick up developed film -- including a snapshot that showed him in a bright red G-string with a gun aimed at his rear -- and at Walmart stores to buy ammunition, which one store refused to sell him because of his demeanor.

The motel clerk said Loughner frightened him and said that while he appeared not to be on drugs he seemed "just messed up."

"He gave off an aura that frightened me," the clerk reportedly told investigators.