Man Shot in Tucson Rampage Is Arrested

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Man Shot in Tucson Rampage Is Arrested at a TV Taping

TUCSON — A victim of the shooting spree here that killed six people and wounded 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was arrested Saturday after he spoke threateningly at a televised forum intended to help this stricken city heal, the police and witnesses said.

The man, J. Eric Fuller, 63, a military veteran who supports Ms. Giffords, was “involuntarily committed for mental health evaluation,” said Jason Ogan, a spokesman for the Pima County sheriff’s office.

Mr. Fuller, who was shot in the left knee and back on Jan. 8, was among several victims, medical personnel and others who attended a special forum at St. Odilia Catholic Church hosted by Christiane Amanpour to be televised Sunday on ABC.

State Representative Terri Proud, a Republican, was sitting two rows behind Mr. Fuller. The topic of gun control came up in the forum, she said, and one of the speakers made a comment about a bill introduced recently in Arizona that would allow faculty members on college campuses with concealed weapons permits to carry guns.

Ms. Proud said she spoke up to clarify the bill’s language. Trent Humphries, the founder of the Tucson Tea Party, who was sitting one row behind her, rose to speak and suggested that discussion about gun legislation be postponed until after the funerals. He started to say that he had also been affected by the tragedy because a neighbor was a victim.

At that point, Ms. Proud said, Mr. Fuller blurted out to Mr. Humphries, “You’re dead.”

Mr. Fuller then began to “behave in a very odd manner,” she said. “He was making inappropriate comments.”

Ms. Proud said that after the forum ended, she went to one of the police officers providing security at the forum and asked him to file a report about Mr. Fuller’s remark to Mr. Humphries. The officer told her it was being investigated.

About five police officers surrounded Mr. Fuller and escorted him out. As he was leaving, Ms. Proud said, he turned and yelled, “You’re all whores!”

Mr. Fuller was also involved in a confrontation on Jan. 8, shortly before the attack on Ms. Giffords, which occurred at an event she held for her constituents outside a Safeway supermarket. He said in a long interview last week with The New York Times that he had argued there with a man he described as a former Marine after a heated discussion over politics. Gabriel Zimmerman, an aide to Ms. Giffords, separated the two.

Mr. Zimmerman was killed in the attack later that morning.

Mr. Fuller spoke dismissively of Republicans during the interview. “They appeal to simple-minded rednecks,” he said.

He said that he had had trouble sleeping after he was wounded and that he calmed himself the first night by writing down the Declaration of Independence, which he had memorized three decades earlier.

In the first days after the attack, his anger seemed especially strong. In the interview, he repeatedly denounced the “Tea Party crime syndicate,” and said he placed some of the blame for the shooting on Sarah Palin and other Republican leaders, saying he believed they had contributed to a toxic atmosphere.

He said he had expected to see protesters at Ms. Giffords’s event, and had planned “to shout them down because I can make a lot of noise.”

Speaking of Jared L. Loughner, who is accused of being the gunman, he said, “Saying anything about him would be a waste of breath. Recognizing his existence is a waste. I don’t like his face.”

Later in the week, Mr. Fuller visited the Loughner home to apologize to the parents for calling their son names, according to reporters at the scene. They said he did not manage to see them.

Mr. Fuller used to drive a limousine, but in recent years, he said, he got by working various odd jobs, including collecting signatures for political campaigns.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Dr. Laura Nelson, deputy director of the Division of Behavioral Sciences of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said that Mr. Fuller’s actions could be a response to the trauma he suffered in the shooting.

“Grief after what happened here in Tucson last week is a completely normal reaction, and anger is a very common symptom of grief,” said Dr. Nelson, who was invited to speak at the forum. “I hope that he’ll get the help that he needs to get through this very difficult time.”
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