Police Seize Photos of Loughner with Gun -- Dressed in Red G-String

TUCSON — Law enforcement officials said Friday they have multiple photos of Jared L. Loughner posing with a Glock 9mm pistol next to his naked buttocks and dressed in a bright red g-string. It is the same model of weapon as the one the police say Mr. Loughner used last Saturday to kill six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and to wound 14 others, including an Arizona congresswoman. The photos were turned over to the police by Walgreens, where Mr. Loughner had taken them to be developed. In some of the photos he is holding the gun near his crotch, and in others, presumably shot in a mirror, he is holding the gun next to his buttocks, the police said. It was not yet clear when the photos were taken or whether Mr. Loughner had ordered prints.

The Pima County Sherriff’s Department on Friday released a recording of a 911 call made by Bryce Tierney, a friend of Mr. Loughner, in the hours after the shooting rampage. In it, Mr. Tierney can be heard telling the operator that Mr. Loughner had called him the night before the shooting from a restricted number.

“The shooter was someone that I knew,” Mr. Tierney said. “He left a message on my phone at, like, 2 in the morning last night. He didn’t say anything about shooting people or anything.”Earlier on Friday, as the funeral of another victim of last week’s shooting rampage was held, doctors said that Representative Gabrielle Giffords continued to make significant medical progress.

“We couldn’t have hoped for any better improvement than we’re seeing right now given the severity of her injury initially,” said Dr. G. Michael Lemole Jr., chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson. “We can even think she is beginning to carry out more complex sequences of events, more complex sequences of activities in response to our commands, and even spontaneously. So we’re very encouraged she’s continued to make all the right moves in the right direction.”

Last Saturday, Ms. Giffords, 40, an Arizona Democrat, was meeting with constituents in a Tucson supermarket parking lot when a gunman opened fire, killing 6 people and wounding 14, including Ms. Giffords. Among the dead were John M. Roll, the chief federal judge in Arizona, and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green.

[link to www.nytimes.com]

Last Edited by CrazyJarhead on 01/14/2011 03:39 PM