AZ Sheriff: "AZ Mecca for prejudice and bigotry"-'Shooter in custody-seeking 2nd person of interest'

[kpete]

Sheriff: Shooter in custody, seeking person of interest
by Jed Lewison
Sat Jan 08, 2011 at 05:32:56 PM PST

In a news conference just now, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said there was "reason to believe" that Jared Lee Loughner had a companion with him when he opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others earlier today. Dupnik said he was not in a position to publicly identify this person, but said that he was a white man in his 50s and that the Sheriff's department has a photograph of the individual and is seeking his apprehension. He did not call the individual a suspect, but rather a person of interest.

Sheriff Dupnik said a total of nineteen people were shot, six of whom were killed. Loughner is in the custoday of the Pima County Sheriff's Department at the moment. Dupnik also referenced reports that a suspicious package had been identified at Giffords' Tucson office.

Sheriff Dupnik also made a passionate plea for cooler heads to prevail in political debate, decrying the vitriolic tone of some talk radio hosts.

****When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the Capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.

Dupnik later added that such "vitriol might be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/8/934458/-Sheriff:-Shooter-in-custody,-seeking-person-of-interest

[efhmc]

1. That was amzing. Thanks for posting this.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. the good sheriff ought to not rush to judgement here

as we have learned right here:
1) probably just a nut job divorced from reality
2) no evidence yet that three years of non-stop violent rhetoric connected in any way to this event
3) just because an outspoken Democratic Congresswoman was the target there is no reason to believe that this was a political assassination.

[Raschel]

3. Rep. Raul Grijalva speaks out also.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x144833