Newly released photos show Jan. 8 crime scene
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PCSDA crop of a photo released by the Sheriff's Department on Tuesday shows the weapon used in the Jan. 8 attack, several magazines and a knife carried by the gunman. -
PCSDA PCSD car became a mobile whiteboard for investigators. -
PCSDSketched on the back of the Sheriff's Department car was a diagram of the shooting scene. -
PCSDJust a single photo released depicted any blood. 'We don't want to tear at people over and over again,' a Sheriff's Department spokesman said.
Hundreds of photos taken in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shooting were released Tuesday by the Pima County Sheriff's Department, including images of the Glock handgun and high capacity magazine used to kill six and wound a dozen others. Withheld by authorities were any graphic photos of victims of the shooting rampage.
The majority of the 599 photos released are of license plates of vehicles that were parked at the Northwest Side grocery store where Jared Lee Loughner attempted to assassinate then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Jan. 8, 2011.
Other photos are of the taxi that Loughner took to the Safeway store, grocery receipts, cell phones and clothing, and other evidence recorded at the scene.
PCSD investigators took over 1,000 photographs of the scene, said spokesman Deputy Thomas Peine. Photos depicting the injured and dead were not released to protect privacy, he said.
"We don't want to tear at people over and over again," he said, describing those photos that were held back as "detailed photos of the deceased."
About 2,700 pages of written records from the investigation were released to reporters at the end of March, but the photographs were held back until they could be reviewed by PCSD's legal advisor.
Photos taken by FBI and other federal investigators were not included in the release Tuesday, nor were photos taken at the scene by witnesses that were turned over to the Sheriff's Department.
Video of the crime scene was not included in either release.
The Sheriff's Department obtained copies of video from both Safeway and next-door Walgreens from the time of the shooting. Those copies were turned over to the FBI, and that agency still has possession, Peine said.
A report by a PCSD detective shows that the front-door video camera of the Walgreens captured footage of people running north, away from the shooting scene. That camera did not capture the shooting. Three separate videos from Safeway showed Loughner wandering the aisles prior to the shooting, and then him firing at Giffords and others.
Loughner was sentenced in November to seven consecutive life terms, plus 140 years in prison, without the possibility of parole.
Records release blocked by judge until Loughner sentenced
The Jan. 8 records were sealed by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns, at the request of prosecutors, to ensure that gunman Jared Lee Loughner received a fair trial.
In February, Burns ruled that it was up to the Sheriff's Department to release the records. If the case had remained at the state level, many of the records would have been made public long before, but federal rules allow authorities to block the release of more information.
"Now that Mr. Loughner has pleaded guilty and been sentenced, the Government’s time line has expired and the Court’s guiding concern has vanished," Burns wrote in lifting the order.
The records had to be organized and reviewed by attorneys, who redacted some information to protect privacy, said PCSD spokesman Deputy Thomas Peine.
Dozens of news organizations requested the records, he said.
PCSD charged $125 to access the approximately 2,700 pages of records in the file that were released in March, and $25 for the photographs released Tuesday.
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