progress. a great many questions remain. what was the motive here? did the current state of political rhetoric in this country have anything at all to do with this shooting? urgent speculation is swirling one day after a simple rite of citizenship turned into an awful crime scene. we start with a look at how it all unfolded. here's nbc's josh mankiewicz. >> reporter: arizona and the nation mourn this blood-soaked moment in suburbia, we are learning about the man who tried to assassinate an elected official. gabrielle giffords is recovering from a single gunshot to the head, the bullet fired straight through her brain. >> obviously, we don't know which direction she's going to go. it's still very precarious at this time. >> reporter: 14 others were also wounded in yesterday's rampage at this shopping center. at least five of them critically and six killed. among them, a federal judge, an

aide to giffords and a 9-year-old girl who had come to safeway that morning to meet her congresswoman. new details are emerging about a day that started off as just another saturday morning, with shoppers hurrying in and out of stores, checking off errands on their weekend to-do lists. many probably never noticed their local representative, democratic congresswoman gabrielle giffords, standing there among them. she had set up a table outside the supermarket to meet and greet constituents, to listen to what voters had to say. she called it, congress on your corner. it was 10:00 a.m. >> it was a really beautiful morning. and it was a very small gathering, perhaps 25 people, that were loosely gathered around there. >> reporter: dr. steven rayle made it a point to drive to the shopping center that morning to shake hands with giffords, whom he'd never met. he didn't immediately walk up to her table. that may have saved his life. it was 10:10 a.m.

>> heard shots and looked up to see her being shot in the head. >> reporter: you saw it? >> yeah. the gunman didn't even hesitate. just continued spraying bullets as close range to the people who were there. >> reporter: police say the gunman was jared lee loughner, 20 years old, that he fired round after round of bullets into the crowd. rayle estimates it took only 10 to 20 seconds to foefrl change lives that morning. joe zamudio was in a store buying cigarettes when he heard the sound of gunfire. >> as i started to hear it, pop, pop, pop, pop, real loud, like that. >> reporter: you knew what it? >> i knew what it was. >> reporter: he burst out of the store to figure out who was firing and why. instinct made him reach for the

firearm that many of him in arizona always carry. >> as i came around the corner i had my hand like this on my gun. i didn't pull it out of my jo jacket. >> reporter: you never drew your gun? >> i didn't need to. >> reporter: loughner was on the ground, two people on top of them. one was a woman who seemed intent on keeping the gun away from loughner. >> there was a woman that had the gun and the clip he was trying to reload, so she was keeping that away from him and at the same time berating him, how can you be so full of hate? how can you do this? he was face down, head turning to the side. >> reporter: zamudio also rushed to help keep loughner pinned down. >> i didn't think about it. i just responded to something bad had happened and i was going to help. i live in a post-9/11 world where that stuff happens all the time. you feel like you have to be ready to do something. you can't just let people push you around like that. >> 911, what's your

>> in the panic, roughly a minute after the first shots had been fired, calls to 911 started flooding in. >> there has been a shooting. i have a person shot here. >> he went in. he just started firing. >> just called me and told me he was shot. >> by then a former emergency room physician was seeing who needed he had. bodies were everywhere. >> you stop the bleeding, you put pressure on any bleeding. if cpr is needed, do it. there is nothing more to be done than comforting, supporting and stopping pleading, really. >> joe who ran toward a man with a gun instead of away from it, all of it was both terrible and forgettable. >> i looked up and i kind of like took in the scene around me, and what i saw first was, you know, a mother crying for her daughter, a woman who had

covered her daughter and prevented her from getting hit got shot twice. she literally put herself between the bullets and saved her daughter's life. she was the loudest one. she was wanting to see her child, make sure she was okay, and i saw a woman screaming, lost i believe her husband. it was gruesome. blood everywhere. >> minutes after shots were fired, it was clear some victims were without saving. >> some of them, their faces were covered up because they were obviously dead. >> but he wasn't sure about the converse woman. he had seen the gunman shoot her point-blank in the head. at one point he saw gifford slumped against a wall. it was the congresswoman's

intern. >> she was up against my chest. her head was about here and i was just kind of hugging her head to a mrapply the pressure grabbing her from the other side. kept her in the stable position. >> doctors credit the 20-year-old junior with helping saving the congresswoman's life in the first critical moments. soon the congresswoman and others were being raced to area hospitals in a race to save lives. police had already caught their husband. zeromoodyo said the shooter seemed pleased by all the chaos. >> what i saw from him was someone who was seemed very self-satisfied. he had accomplished his goal. he had on him 50, 70 rounds. he was ready to kill as many people as he could. he didn't give up. he wasn't like one of these shooters who puts the gun to his

head at the end. he was still going. they pulled a big knife out of his pocket. this guy wasn't giving up. he wanted to hurt people, and he knew exactly what he was doing. >> tonight, federal murder charges have been filed against jared lofner for killing the aide. state charges are expected. the local sheriff says he is not cooperating and so the question now is why all this happened, as investigators start to peel away the layers of jared lofner's life, they are finding clues as to what may have driven this young man. >> on those first few moment was what happened here behind us. you saw him briefly in the setup piece with us tonight, the

heroic young intern. how did you know to do what you did with such clarity and focus in the middle of what was going on here? >> one of the first things that i knew i needed to do was maintain my composure and maintain calm. not just for myself but for all of those around me, including the congresswoman. i had been trained as a certified nursing assistant and as as, so i learned basic first aid. >> in this case it was more than enough. you saw she had an entry gunshot wound, you applied pressure to the wound. you cradled her. i assume you tried to communicate with her. >> thankfully staying true to how she has always been was fighting and letting us know that she was still there. she was very communicative, and the way she was doing that was squeezing my hand. she couldn't talk, but she was will heing letting us know she

was still conscious. >> you signed people in here yesterday at a desk and having realized you weren't the target of this crazed young man, you switched into a different gear, i guess. >> when i actually heard the gunshots, my first thing was to try to see who had been injured, and assuming there was a gunman, the likely target was the congresswoman because of her position. >> many people owe you a great debt of attitude for your cool and collected manner yesterday and working so well under great pressure. thank you for sharing your story with our audience tonight. >> thank you. when we come back here this evening, more about the congresswoman, scholar of one of the them often described as one of the most promising politician in this part of the country. feoule ] anntncerha w yhallaiwiou gwh lenou would consider the scale my frenemy. ? ♪

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back here in tucson, arizona, tonight where from the moment the news first broke, the stories started to pour in about what kind of politician, what kind of person gabby giffords is. lively, charismatic, described as having such a great spirit. last fall she narrowly won re-election, fending off a tough party from a -- a tough challenge, rather, from a tea party candidate, kate snow has

this survivor's story. >> reporter: to anyone who knows her, she is simply gabby, a 40-year-old who describes herself as curious about the world. >> that's going to come up every single day so let's take advantage. >> reporter: which friend like fellow congressman debbie wasserman schultz describe her as warm and deeply caring. >> she is someone who has the most open heart. she treats everyone as though they are incredibly special. >> reporter: she loves cruising through arizona on a motorcycle. in fact, she has been a champion of motorcycle riders' rights in congress, but she'll also hike a trail or even go on horseback. she and her husband, nasa astronaut, navy captain mark kelly, celebrated their third anniversary in november. >> she loves mark with all her heart. and she loves her stepdaughters. and they are an incredible family. >> reporter: in a "new york

times" feature on their wedding, captain kelly said he proposed because gabrielle giffords had it all -- beautiful, smart, hard working, balanced, fun to be with, and she laughed at my jokes. when he was on the space shuttle "discovery" in 2006, she chose a wake-up song, u2's "beautiful day." yes, she's a member of congress, an active one, but she hasn't always been in politics. she's certainly not from washington. she grew up in tucson, the third generation of her family to live there. in the mid-'90s giffords took over the family business, a tire warehouse. she drove a pickup truck to work, wore jeans. eventually she sold the company to goodyear and that's when she got into politics. she was elected to the arizona state senate in 2000, the youngest woman ever elected there. on her twitter page congresswoman giffords has this quote from mother teresa tagged

as a favorite. in this life we cannot always do great things but we can do small things with great love. politically speaking, she is a centrist democrat. in congress she represents what's traditionally been a republican district in southern arizona, spreading south and east from tucson to the mexican border. >> we need you to help us get out the vote. >> reporter: she re-elected to a third team after a tight race by a that's-party backed republican in november, congressman represents the house district right next to giffords. >> she's a rising star in our state and nationally. terribly smart person. very disciplined. >> reporter: giffords makes a point of being accessible to her constituents. she holds these events, called congress on your corner. these are photos from one she held last may at a safeway

store. >> the warmth in which her constituents, family and friends embrace sher just incredible. >> reporter: she's known around the capital for pushing solar energy, immigration reform and working with military families and vets and she's obsessed with the details of health care reform. >> i rise today to address our single most important domestic issue that faces our country, reforming our broken health insurance program. >> reporter: after she voted for president obama's health care bill, vandals damaged her office in tucson. >> are you afraid? are you fearful today? >> you know, i'm not. >> reporter: but it was that vote for health care reform that landed her on a controversial list of members of congress, posted on sarah palin's facebook page. >> the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. when people do that, they have to realize there's consequences to that action. >> reporter: palin has said the imagery on that map has been misinterpreted. giffords herself is a staunch supporter of the right to bear

arms. she posted these photos of herself, proudly holding weapons. her most proudly appearance in congress now seems eerie. just three days ago she joined a reading of the u.s. constitution on the house floor. >> congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion -- >> reporter: her section, the first amendment. >> or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for address of grievances. >> reporter: yesterday she was holding another one of her own gatherings. she tweeted, my first congress on your corner starts now. please stop by to let me know what's on your mind. a small reminder her friends say of the way she leads her life. always trying to help, in public and private. >> this is someone who is devoted to her family, devoted to her community and chooses to be a public servant because she believes in making the world a better place. >> and back here at the shopping center in tucson, amid yesterday's chaos, including some false media reports that

she had died, came the sliver of good news, of course, that congresswoman giffords had survived this attack. shot in the head at point-blank range, she made it to the hospital and through some gruelling surgery, still in critical condition tonight, yet there is reason to be hopeful about her condition. that he story from hoda kotb. >> reporter: a bullet through the brain is almost always lethal. 90% of those shot in the head die within minutes. but more than 24 hours after she was shot, congresswoman giffords is alive. that in itself is remarkable. >> we're still, still in critical condition. but i am cautiously optimistic. >> overall, this is about as good as it's going to get. >> reporter: but the congresswoman's condition remains very precarious. she's heavily sedated, awakened every hour so doctors can check her responses. dr. nancy snyderman is the chief medical editor for nbc news.

her eyes are closed, she's on a vent layer, so how is she able to communicate with doctors when they're doing these hour by hour checkups? >> they'll turn off the medicines and allow her conscious state to rise. they'll give her very simple commands. and they'll measure those commands. squeeze my hand. do you recognize me? the minute they're satisfied that they've done a basic neurologic check, she goes back into sedation. >> reporter: many thing had to go right, most important says dr. snyderman, the bullet's trajectory. it's called a through and through. >> it may be the most fortuitous path that it was high and just came through this quarter section of the brain. had the gunman shot her through and through this way or through and through this way, or lower, we'd be talking probably a life-ending altercation. >> reporter: also important, the congresswoman got to a top-notch

trauma center fast, inside 40 minutes. oddly enough, even the day of the week broke lucky for her. this thing happened on a saturday. >> yeah. >> reporter: on a saturday. when the o.r. is relatively quiet. not only were there operating rooms available, so they could run four or five o. rncr.s at t same time, but they could get people in. >> reporter: giffords' age is also a positive. she's 40. >> she's vibrant, healthy. her brain has a better chance of recovering. >> reporter: the congresswoman's vision and hearing will likely not be effected but her ability to speak will almost certainly be impaired. the bullet entered the brain's speech center. >> the area that allows me to say, i like your white scarf. i might not think of the word white and it's exited the part of the brain that allows you to organize your thoughts, know where you are and respond appropriately to situations. >> reporter: there will be additional brain damage. >> when a bullet enters your brain, it not only is hot, but

it causes reverberation. there can be trauma to the surrounding brain tissue away from the course of the bullet. they have to make sure that the brain hasn't died. >> reporter: while there are few medical certainties now, it's clear that congresswoman's giffords' recovery will be measured in months and years, not weeks. >> and we are joined tonight by two stellar men in all of this. two of the doctors in charge of the congresswoman's care, michael lamole and peter rhee from university medical center here in tucson. dr. rhee, when i read you had done a couple tours in ramadi, i felt instantly reassured on behalf of these patients coming into the er. what was the scene like on your shift yesterday? when was she identified to you as the local member of congress?

>> she was actually recognized as a local member of congress earlier on because we had intel from the field. the trauma bays were exceedingly busy. we have seven dedicated areas just for trauma patients alone. there was obviously a little chaotic zoo with a lot of people in that area, but it was something to behold. we're very proud of the entire group of people that were working there, because she wasn't the only patient that came to us. there were a total of 11 patients that came to us. and with the combination of the nurses, emergency medicine physicians, residents and our surgical staff, things went very well. and, obviously, in ramadi in the field we don't have that kind of resources, both personnel and also medical equipmentwise, but this was about as good as it's going to get in a civilian set organize any setting in the world. it was nice from that aspect. >> though i'm guessing, dr dr. rhee, it had to remind you of a mass casualty situation in the field where you have close to a dozen people coming through

the doors and you've got to do triage on the fly. >> that's correct. so, you know, my main job was to make sure the right people were with the right patient. the patients were moving in the right place and direction. we were also, as you had mentioned, in a very fortunate state because it was saturday. we actually had three trauma surgeons in house. when i got there, i was on backup call. we had four. then we also had cardiac thoracic surgeons and vascular surgeons and orthopedic surgeons within minutes. we had many operating rooms available with the full codry of anesthesiologists. between emergency medicine, who also called people in, and us and everybody else around, we had a great number of people. you know, this is the kind of situation that the hospital has practiced and worked for. and along with our experience of having these type of events frequently in the past, it was really nice to see everybody working so well together. this is from the medical side of

the house, as grim as what it might sound, this is what we do live for. >> that brings us to doctor lamole. this patient comes in, a distinct entry wound, exit wound, this through-and-through injury. you go to work. tell me now, what are the next steps you're looking for as you look for signs to report progress to all of us while waiting for news about the congresswoman? >> really the most -- one of the most important facets in someone's care is their neurologic status before a surgery or intervention. i'm happy to say dr. rhee's team was able to tell me she was able to follow basic commands prior to surgery. that was very important. at that point we have a c.a.t. scan. we know where the damage is. we know where we have to do our job. we set out in a methodical fashion dealing with this kind of injury. we have a series of step. we control the bleeding in the o.r. we take the pressure off the brain by removing a window of bone. then we debreed any portion of

brain that isn't living. we didn't have to do much of that. we closer back up and get her to control blood sugar or blood salt and keep that secondary injury and brain swelling down to a minimum. >> gentlemen, we realize with what you've been through, joining us across town and by satellite has taken some effort for you. i want to thank you on behalf of our team for allowing us to talk to you and thanks for your heroic work in the e.r. when we come back, a portrait of the alleged gunman inwhatkne ow, we atow, especiam yro f what he left behind on the web. >> the tissue beneath the enamel. the dentin contains these channels that lead directly to the nerve center. cold and heat travel through these channels and stimulate the nerve. that's when you get this ouch. dentistro wctreks en.nshe tduct wroks. that's when you get this ouch. the active ingredient within sensodyne travels into the nerve center. when it reaches the nerve, it forms a barrier blocking the sensation of pain

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back here in tucson tonight, where we're learning more about this alleged gunman, jare lee loughner, one friend described him as, quote, obviously very disturbed. we have a look at his background tonight from nbc's chris hansen. >> reporter: in tucson sunday the investigation into the mass killing continues. authorities ruled out one lead when a person of interest they were looking for was interviewed and had no connection to the case. >> the fbi -- >> reporter: before the charges were filed against jared loughner this afternoon, fbi director robert muller said the bureau is doing everything it can to get to the bottom of how loughner ended up on a shooting spree. >> i can assure you teams of professionals are working toward a single goal, and that is to piece together the facts, answer those questions, and ensure that justice is done. >> reporter: since the moment of

his arrest, authorities in arizona and across the country have been attempting to fit together the pieces of the jared lee loughner puz willing. who is this young man who went from a quiet, shy high school student to an alleged mass murderer, who used the internet to derail a variety of topics. according to the fbi the suspected shooter bought the glock handgun at this sportsman store on tuesday and paid about $50 0. sources tell "dateline" loughner was armed with nearly 100 bullets and he fired at least 20. officials are still trying to nail down several points in the investigation. even including how loughner got to the shopping center where the shooting took place. overnight, police and the fbi canvassed the middle class neighborhood where loughner lived with his parents. according to court documents when federal agents searched the houses, they found an envelope inside the safe with handwriting

stating, i planned ahead, my assassination, and the name giffords, with what appears to be loughner's signature. they also found a letter from the congresswoman addressed to loughner thanking him for attending an event she hosted in august 2007. loughner's high school friend, katie parker, was with him at that event. >> he asked her a question, which made absolutely no sense to me and i can't even recall it today, but he said, she didn't -- she didn't understand it. i don't understand what it is with politicians. they don't get it. >> reporter: "dateline" has learned that approximately four years ago loughner also wrote the congresswoman a nonthreatening letter and that she responded. as the sun rose over arizona this morning, a clearer portrait emerged of the 22-year-old man at the center of a mass murder investigation. a clearer portrait from youtube and internet postings of a man with an apparently blurred point of view. loughner grew up in tucson and attended mountain view high

school. he playedax sneopho in the school band. classmates described him as odd, not violent. julianne blanco attended middle school and high school with him. >> he was a little weird but we were young and we're all kind of weird when we're that age. for the most part, he was just really quiet. he did have his opinions, but we all have our opinions. >> reporter: in 2005 loughner enrolled in pima community college in tucson and there he began to exhibit unstable behavior. >> when i first -- >> reporter: college classmate linda sorenson exchanged e-mails with loughner and said she ended up afraid of him. >> i thought he was mentally and emotionally unstable. and i was very much afraid that he was going to do something exactly like this. except that my fear was that he was going to do this in our class. >> reporter: in 2010, according to the college, campus police were called five times to respond to classroom disruptions involving loughner. then in a rambling youtube message apparently about graves

given by the pima community college, he seemed to say the system, quote, is unconstitutional because of the united states bill of rights. in september after campus police discovered the video, he was suspended. in a statement issued by the college, officials said he would not be allowed back until cleared by a mental health professional. loughner decided to leave voluntarily. in other postings, he railed about currency, the gold standard and grammar. the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar, he wrote. he said that police officers operate unconstitutionally. he also wrote about the definition of the word "terrorist." quote, if i define terrorist, then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. i define terrorist. the ramblings and rantings seem to make little sense. yesterday pima county sheriff clarence dupnik said loughner seemed unbalanced.

>> i have no reason to believe that the person was insane. was he unstable? i would agree with that. >> reporter: the southern poverty law centers who monitors extremist groups also says it's clear to him loughner was unstable. >> it's clear that the man was extremely confused. you read through some of his writings and they are virtually impossible to understand. >> reporter: he believes loughner may have been looking to lash out at any government symbol. >> i can only suppose the congresswoman was who was, in fact, his local representative was the closest manifestation of the government he had come to see as evil. >> reporter: two years ago loughner tried to enlist in the army but was turned down. nbc news has learned loughner admitted using marijuana in the past and his application for enlistment was rejected after he tested positive for drug use. tomorrow loughner is expected to

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impak here in tucson, the political world is something of a tight community here in arizona. most of those in it know each other.

gabrielle giffords started out in the state legislature here. her close friend from those days, also a friend to her aide gabe zimmerman, who was killed her yesterday, is dr. matt heinz. i was watching your interview on television last night. tell us about these two people. gabe, who left a career in social work to become an aide to a member of congress, and this congresswoman who is fighting so hard in the hospital not far from here. >> absolutely. gabe and gabrielle giffords are cut from the same cloth. they are beautiful souls. and they have -- both have a passion for service and that's something they both did very -- every day, every day when they're working for their constitute yens. gabe zimmerman was community outreach director and did many of the constituent services. because gabrielle giffords knows how hard it is to be a legislator with limited resources, she instructed her staff to treat legislators like

they treat her. >> and he was just engaged to be married, gabe was, correct? >> he was, indeed. i actually work at the tucson medical center with his fiancee, kelly, and my heart goes out to kelly and her family, everyone tragically affected by this yesterday. >> doctor, rest assured, the whole country is watching as we all feel helpless. we're thinking of you and sending thoughts and prayers very hard in this circumstance. thank you for talking about both of them here with us tonight. >> it's a pleasure. >> christina taylor green was the youngest victim here, the youngest to die just 9 years old. tonight lester holt has her story. >> she was very patriotic. she liked to wear red, white and blue. she liked -- fourth of july she would get really excited. she was just -- >> wave her flags. >> very patriotic. very political and interested in politics and government at a very young age. >> reporter: congresswoman

gabrielle giffords would have loved christina taylor green. it was christina's keen interest in politics at such a tender age that brought them together in tragedy saturday at the safeway parking lot in tucson. >> she was going to go with our neighbor for a government lesson, basically. just to see what she could learn, see how she could help her community. >> reporter: christina was just 9 years old, the youngest victim of the shooting massacre where representative giffords was meeting her constituents. john and roxanne that green, christina's parents, told us today that christina had just been elected to the student council at mesa verde elementary school. >> she wanted to make positive changes in the classroom. i guess the kids loved it. and she -- >> she won. >> her message got across and she won. >> reporter: tough little campaigner, huh? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: could you see her some day in congress? >> easily. and that's -- you know, i could

see her doing a lot of things. i think she would have been successful with whatever she put her mind to because she was tenacious. >> reporter: christina's thirst for politics and the inner workings of government came from a devastating place. i think everybody paused when they heard her birth date, september 11, 20 01. >> she was very proud of that. >> reporter: because of her birth date, she was one of the 509/11 babies featured in a book called faces of hope. >> she had a little different tilt to 9/1 1, that was her birthday. she looked at it as positive for the country. >> there would be an end to terrorism, end to war, end to hatred, disrespect, somehow everybody would come together, like they did. >> reporter: this wasn't christina's only connection to the spotlight. major league baseball was in her dna. her grandfather, dallas green, was the manager of the philadelphia phillies team that won the world series in 1980.

he also had stints as manager of the new york yankees and new york mets. her dad, john, is a scout for the los angeles dodgers. we lost a member of the dodgers family, the team said, in a statement. >> very strong little girl. >> again, her nickname, i called her the bobcat because she's -- she was competitive and she was not -- she would not take no for an answer. >> reporter: christina also loved baseball. she was a hot shot second baseman as the only girl on her little league team, the canyon dol oroyo pirates. >> she was a good little athlete. she said, dad, i want to be the first -- first woman major league baseball player. i said, that's great. >> reporter: i have to ask you about yesterday. how did you find out? >> i wasn't watching tv. i received a phone call from my friend's husband and he said that susie and christina were at

university medical center and i assumed immediately they might have been in a car accident. >> reporter: what else could it be? >> yeah, what else could it be. never in a million years would i have ever guessed. >> reporter: you don't expect your daughter in the northwest part of tucson in a safeway -- >> five minutes from our home. what could have happened? >> it's a good area. nothing normally -- >> nothing has ever happened like this before. >> reporter: and you get to the emergency room and what happens next? >> i realize it was bigger than just a car accident. i saw so many people around. and everyone's face, it just -- i just knew in my heart it was something bad. something really, really bad. >> when i got in there i had the same feeling. is that something grave had happened. but, you know, you're holding on hope that -- that it's -- that it's not our daughter. >> and when they came in ten

minutes later, which seemed like two hours later, they told me they tried their best to save her, but they couldn't. and that she passed away. >> reporter: did you get to see her? >> yes, i did. i saw her afterwards. >> my son and -- >> i said good-bye to her. >> we got a chance to say good-bye. etes. it was so complicated. there was a lot of information out there. but it was frustrating trying to get the answers i needed. then my company partnered with unitedhealthcare. they provided onsite screenings, healthy cooking tips. that's a recipe i'm keeping. ( announcer ) turning complex data into easy tools. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

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yesterday, the sheriff here created something of a storm when he said the vit atmosphere have cribbed to these shootings. and with us is pima county sheriff clarence dupnik. thank you for joining us. i saw westboro baptist church is coming here to protest some victims of this funeral. i thought of you. this is exactly what you were talking about. the back and forth in our political discourse. >> i've never seen the mood of the country as bad as i have seen it this last year. >> and why here? >> i don't think it's just here. i think it's all over the country. i think this just happened to be one of the places that was unfortunate enough to have the incident. i think it can happen anywhere. as a matter of fact, from talking to some representatives in congress and some senators

and people who are responsible for their protection, these people are very concerned, because senators and congressmen when they're not in washington, go back to their communities, they come to events like this, sometimes five and six times a day like gabrielle, and they have no security, no law enforcement. law enforcement doesn't even know they're there. so, they're very, very vulnerable. >> sheriff, thank you for being with us tonight. and in the few seconds we have remaining, even if this turns out to be a 22-year-old emotionally disturbed kid, you still feel that as a culture, it should be dialled back. >> absolutely. because i think that the disturbed personalities are the most susceptible to the vit tha that goes on. i think it's irresponsible for people to do that and there are consequences. >> sheriff dupnik white house law enforcement officers are watching the scene as we have this conversation tonight. we'll take another break. when we come back, remarkable

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tonight. we've been talking about the wounded member of congress. we told you earlier about the youngest victim in yesterday's shooting. but this killer took five other lives as well. they had gathered that morning to do what good citizens do.

they had come to a perfectly average suburban shopping center to talk to their local member of congress. more on that part of this story from nbc's keith morrison. >> reporter: they were doing, though it may sound grand to say so, the real work of a great democracy here in this grocery store parking lot. imagine what we've lost. irreplaceable. like john roll, chief federal judge in arizona, the man who received death threats himself over a judicial decision someone didn't like. judge roll had been copping with an avalanche of drug cases. a colleague surmised he had gone to the grocery store parking lot to think mrs. giffords for that. he sandwiched his visit in, said his friend, the sheriff. >> he went to mass and was going to go home and do the floors, which he always does on

saturday. >> reporter: he was just wonderful, said the retired supreme court justice sandra day o'connor. sound like something that might happen in someplace like afghanistan, she said. so it did. and it took a young man named gabe zimmerman, who served representative giffords as director of community outreach. that's a nice man, so kind, that's what even opponents have said about him. all the political vitriol around these days, and gabe zimmerman was nice to everyone. what did he do? he stuck up for people. said his friend. >> those who are disenfranchised, those that didn't have a voice, he felt passionate about. >> reporter: gabe zimmerman, just 30, gone now. dorwan's stoddard standing in line to see representative giffords. what they intended to say to her, we don't know now. we do know they were childhood

sweethearts who fell in love when their first spouses died. he was a minister at mountain avenue church of christ, just up the road from the grocery store. if you needed to fix a sidewalk or help a needy person, dorwan is who you'd call. >> dory would step up to the plate and throw his self on a grenade for anybody. whether it was spiritually, physically, financially, he wasn't one who stood back and let the other guy do it. >> reporter: maybe dorwan and his wife intended to go out to breakfast after meeting the congresswoman. instead he fell on her body to shield her from the bullets. he died. she lived. there were two women of the most impressive accomplishments, mothers, grandmothers, one a great grandmother. there was dorthy morris, there was george, her husband of 50 years ago. and phyllis schneck, 79, doing

like the others her bit for the political process. phyllis, by the way, a life-long republican, but i like this lady, she said about giffords, to her family. and now a small army of offspring is beginning a cycle of grief. and, of course, there was her, christina taylor green, born, as about everyone knows now, on september 11, 2001. there was that book about such babies, including her "faces of hope" and she was that, all right. and now she was going to meet her congresswoman, this face of hope for her country's future. and certainly famous now for what we could learn to do better. >> that's all for us from tucson tonight. more on this story on your late local news. tomorrow morning on "toda