Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused in the shooting Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others, was visited by Tucson police on more than one occasion prior to Saturday’s massacre, reports The New York Times.
Police did not reveal why they had visited the home but said that more information would be released once legal counsel had reviewed it. CBS news previously reported that Loughner had 5 run-ins with campus security when he attended Pima Community College. Tucson police arrested Loughner for possession of drug paraphernalia in 2007, and he was ordered to attend a diversion program by the county attorney’s office.
Loughner was also a practiced marksman, friend and former target shooting companion Zane Gutierrez told the Times.
“If he had a gun pointed at me, there is nothing I could do because he would make it count,” said Gutierrez. “He was quick.”
“He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head,” Guiterrez added.
“He would ask me constantly, ‘Do you see that blue tree over there?’ He would admit to seeing the sky as orange and the grass as blue,” Mr. Gutierrez continued. “Normal people don’t talk about that stuff…Jared felt nothing existed but his subconscious. The dream world was what was real to Jared, not the day-to-day of our lives.”
Gutierrez eventually became uncomfortable around Loughner, and stopped talking to him last spring. “He would call me at 2 a.m. and asked, ‘Are you hanging out in front of my house, stalking me?’ He started to get really paranoid, and said he did not want to see us anymore and did not trust us,” Gutierrez said, referring to himself and another friend. “He thought we were plotting to kill him or steal his car.”
According to Gutierrez, Loughner had a strained relationship with his parents Amy and Randy. “I felt they were not really good reaching out and he was not good at reaching out to his parents,” Gutierrez said. Neighbors said that the Loughners had become more distant in recent years, keeping to themselves and becoming increasingly reclusive.
Randy worked as a carpet-layer and pool-deck installer, while Amy managed a public park on the outskirts of Tuscon.
Next door neighbor Leslie Cooper said the Loughner’s were “not normal” and that she warned her son to “be careful” to not anger Randy. “There’s a reason why they stick to themselves,” she added.
“It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday,” the Loughners said in a statement released Tuesday. “There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better.”