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Tucson video ‘leaves no doubt,’ officials say

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Federal law enforcement officials have recovered “reams of videotape” recorded from surveillance cameras at the Safeway shopping center in Tucson where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot — video that they say “leaves no doubt” about how the gunman methodically went about killing six people and wounding 13 others.

The video from multiple cameras posted around the grocery store parking lot is “very, very clear,” one federal official said.

“It’s so clear, you can even tell the sequence of who got shot when and where,” the official said. “And it’s not the grainy kind of typical fast-food or mini-mart robbery tape. It is so clear it leaves no issue about who was doing the shooting.”

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As an example, one official who has had the video described to him in detail said it showed that Giffords was shot first, followed by U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, who was standing near Giffords. Roll, 63, Arizona’s senior federal judge, was killed.

“You see him shot in the chest,” the official said. “He tried to get up. He started to get up but then fell back down again. He didn’t make it.”

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, was arrested at the scene and faces five federal counts of murder and attempted murder for the federal employees who were killed and injured.

Also on Monday, federal officials said prosecutors planned to seek a federal grand jury indictment against Loughner on Friday; his arraignment is scheduled for the following Monday.

Pima County Atty. Barbara LaWall has said she intends to seek state charges against Loughner in the future for the four people killed and 10 wounded who were not federal employees.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

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