(Via news.yahoo.com) Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot Saturday. While some initial reports said Giffords had died, the local sheriff, Clarence Dupnick and University Medical Center spokeswoman Darci Slaten say she is alive and in surgery. Her husband confirmed that to ABC. She was hosting a public event at a Safeway grocery store on the north side of Tucson.
According to Slaten, nine other people were shot. According to a law enforcement source speaking to CNN, 11 others were shot. Both CNN and TPM are reporting that the victims include a federal judge.
The motives of the attacker, who was detained on the scene and taken into custody, are at this point unknown. Fox is reporting that the gunman “ran up and began shooting indiscriminately as Giffords addressed supporters.” According to the New York Times, the Tucson Citizen is reporting that Giffords was shot at close range.
Witnesses say that the gunman was in his “late teens or early twenties.” An eyewitness who contacted Gawker says that he was young, mid-to-late 20s, white clean-shaven with short hair and wearing dark clothing.” According to their source, he looked like a “fringe character.”
Giffords was first elected represent Arizona’s 8th district in 2006. She is married to astronaut Mike Kelly.
The Associated Press has video from the scene immediately after the shooting:
