Jared Loughner has been charged with the attempted murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and with the killing of her aide, Gabe Zimmerman. But he’s also been charged with the attempted murders of two of her staffers, both of whom are expected to survive.
Ronald Barber, Gifford’s district director, is seen on camera, according to the complaint, chatting with slain judge John Roll, moments before the shooting.
Pamela Simon, a community outreach representative for Giffords, was also injured. Both Simon and Barber have worked with Giffords since she came into office in 2007.
After the shots rang out, another Gifford’s aide, Daniel Hernandez, rendered assistance to the wounded. According to his own account of the incident, Barber, wounded, insisted Hernandez stay with their boss.
Information about the two is scarce at this time, but they are both expected to recover. From Barber’s online journal, Sunday night. “Ron is still in the ICU despite what the media has reported. However, the plan is for him to be moved to the next level room sometime soon.”
Despite his trauma, he is doing remarkably well. He has been stable throughout. At this time we ask that only family try and visit as he sleeps a lot and the wonderful staff is constantly in the room. The floor and hospital are also secured and it is hard to get in.Ron was in surgery yesterday for over 6 hours. Amazingly enough he was able to talk with us right after he came to. He will have further surgeries this week.
Again, we thank you all for your prayers and messages so much and we know that the love that has poured in for Ron, Gabby and everyone else closely involved in this tragedy has helped tremendously in these first hours and now days.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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