Alleged Arizona Gunman in Court
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, caught in the middle of a bloody rampage. They were average citizens, but they became heroes. And they have saved many more lives in that Tucson massacre. I'll speak with a retired U.S. army colonel who helped tackle the gunman. Also in shackles, his head saved, the alleged shooter makes his first court appearance. And we're going to hear the federal charges against him. He's speaking out as well. Stand by. And he was known as the Hammer, once one of the country's most powerful Republican politicians, now the former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay facing prison. Want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Breaking news, political headlines and Jeanne Moos all straight ahead. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. The Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Office just released this picture of the Tucson gunman, head shaves and grinning. Late this afternoon, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner talked during his first court appearance, answering to federal charges, including murder and the attempted assassination of a member of the United States Congress. Doctors say Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is holding her own. She's being kept asleep by doctors, is in critical, but stable condition. Doctors say they're -- quote -- "cautiously optimistic." We have all of the angles on this major story covered for you. But we want to begin with Loughner's first court appearance today. Let's go straight to CNN's Ted Rowlands. He was inside the courtroom, only a couple of feet away from this accused killer. How did it go, Ted?</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you see in that mug shot, he came in with his head shaved. We'd seen photos of him with a lot of hair. So that was a little bit dramatic, as he came in a side entrance to the courtroom. He first was seated with his lawyer. And then, when the judge took the bench, he went up to a podium and answered questions of the judge. When he was first seated, he was looking around a little bit, looked at the ceiling, and then stared straight ahead and seemed to be quite nervous. But when he got to the podium and the judge engaged him, he answered every question the judge had. He repeated his name for the judge. He had a very strong voice. And then the judge started reading the charges one by one to Loughner, starting out with the first count he was faced with, which was the attempted assassination of a member of Congress. Counts two and three were attempted murder -- or the murders of Gabe Zimmerman and John Roll. Gabe Zimmerman of course was a staffer of the congresswoman's. And John Roll is a U.S. -- was a U.S. federal judge. And when the judge in this case read that charge against -- that had to do with the death of John Roll, you could feel in the courtroom he seemed to pause, because he was obviously talking about the death of one of his colleagues, the murder of one of his colleagues. Then the judge went on and read the two remaining charges, attempted murder Pam Simon and the attempted murder of Ron Barber, also members of the congresswoman's staff. The maximum sentence for the attempted murders, 20-plus years. The maximum sentence for the assassination attempt on a congresswoman is life in prison. And then, of course, the maximum sentence for the other two murders is the death penalty. Periodically throughout this proceeding, which only lasted about 15 minutes, the judge would ask questions. The judge at one point held up a document and asked the defendant, did you fill this out? Did you sign this? I can't read this signature. The judge -- or the defendant said, yes, I did. Yes. Then he said, did someone help you with this? He said, yes, Ms. Clarke helped me with this. Ms. Clarke is his public defender. We just heard the piece about her. She was next to him throughout this entire proceeding. Again, it lasted about 15 minutes. He exited the courtroom. He didn't look around the courtroom. He was focused on the judge. But clearly he understood everything that was going on around him, and he understood every question the judge had. He was articulate, and he had a strong voice with all of his answers.</s>BLITZER: And you were only a few feet, two feet or three feet away from him, I take it, Ted. Some of his classmates at that community college in Pima County were saying he would stand up, start rambling, start saying ridiculous things. But you saw none of that. He seemed normal to you, well aware of what was going on, not crazy by any means?</s>ROWLANDS: Yes. When he first came into the courtroom, his eyes were darting back and forth very rapidly and he was walking right towards me as he took his seat. I was in the front row. So we were about two to three feet away from each other. And at that point, I was thinking, well, I wonder if he's going to start in with a ramble or not, because he seemed very nervous. But then as soon as the judge took the stand and as soon as he started to communicate with his lawyer and the judge, it was clear that he was understanding -- he understood exactly what was going on. And he was very clear in all of his answers. And he had a very strong voice, which a lot of times you don't see in this situation. You see someone up there who is very emotional, has a weak voice. He was stiff and he had a strong voice and answered every question that he was asked by this judge.</s>BLITZER: Ted Rowlands was an eyewitness in that courtroom today. All right, Ted, thank you. The horrific shooting in Tucson did produce several heroes. President Obama says we should focus on the extraordinary courage displayed during the tragedy.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A 20-year-old college student who ran into the line of fire to rescue his boss, a wounded woman who helped secure the ammunition that might have caused even more damage, the citizens who wrestled down the gunman. Part of what I think that speaks to is the best of America, even in the face of such mindless violence. And so in the coming days we're going to have a lot of time to reflect.</s>BLITZER: Retired U.S. Army Colonel Bill Badger is one of those citizens turned heroes at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' meeting outside that Tucson supermarket.</s>COL. BILL BADGER (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I went down and registered and was standing in line. And it was less than two minutes after I stood in line, why, shots were fired. And it was just one shot right after the other, just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And as soon as I heard the first one, I thought that somebody had threw a bunch of firecrackers. And -- but then I could see that he actually was shooting a gun. And that was a gun. And he'd already shot the congresswoman, Judge Roll, and a little 9-year-old girl. And then he was shooting right down the line. He was not walking. He was just aiming at the people that were sitting in the 12 chairs. I could see that as he was -- you could see some of them, he was hitting, they were falling. Others were diving for the ground. And I could -- I was at the end of the row of chairs, so I knew I better hit the ground. I turned to my left and went to hit the ground, and I heard -- felt this terrible sting right in the back of my head. And I knew that I had been hit. But I went right on down to the ground. And he fired approximately, you know, 18 to 20 shots and then stopped shooting. When he stopped shooting, why, I stood up. And when I stood up, I didn't realize that this individual was walking right in front of me with a -- within a foot of stepping on my toes. And he was going to my left. And he just got past me when some other individual that was there to meet with the congresswoman took one of the chairs that they had been sitting on, folded it, and hit him over the back of the head. Actually, he saw it coming. He ducked and it hit him right on the shoulders. But when he did that, his left hand flew out. His gun was in the right hand. And I had the opportunity to grab his left wrist. And I grabbed his left wrist, and with my right hand I hit him right, you know, between the shoulder blades. And he was going down. At the same time that this was going on, there was a woman that was -- she was sure she was going to be shot because he was walking right towards her with the gun. But when he got -- you know, right before he got to her and when he was right in front of me, why, he took the clip, another clip out of his pocket. And she reached up and grabbed the clip and threw it to the ground, just because she wanted to. And this happened at exactly the same time we were taking the individual to the ground. And so, when he hit the ground, his gun was laying about 6 inches in front of his left hand. And another individual that was there to see the congresswoman reached down and grabbed the gun to take it away from him, to get it away, so he couldn't get it. And as soon as he picked the gun up, why, I said, drop the gun, drop it quick, because I was afraid that some law enforcement person would see this individual holding this gun and would shoot him. And as soon as I told him to drop it, he dropped it. The real hero here is the individual that picked up the chair and hit him and the other individual who helped me take this individual down to the ground.</s>BLITZER: Did he say anything, the gunman, during the time you pounced on top of him and were holding him down?</s>BILL BADGER: The only thing he said was -- I asked him, I said, what in the world did you do something like this for? And he didn't answer me. And I had my left hand. I was choking him. And the other individual had his knee on the back of his neck. About that time, the other individual put a lot more weight on his neck. And it pushed his face right into the sidewalk. And he hollered, ow, ow, ow, ow. And that was the only thing he said.</s>BLITZER: Did you realize at the time that you yourself had been hit by one of these bullets in the back of your head?</s>BADGER: I knew that I had been hit, but I didn't know how serious it was. And while I was holding the individual down -- we had to hold him from five to 10 minutes before the first deputy got there with the handcuffs to take the individual. And while I was holding him down, why, there was a massive amount of blood running down the side of my face, you know, down my arm, all over him and all over the sidewalk. And I -- I really didn't realize that it was coming from me until this woman who had knocked the clip out of his hand said, you're wounded bad, Bill. Or she didn't say Bill, because at that time she didn't know my name. She said, you're wounded bad. She ran into the Safeway, got some paper towels and water and brought it back out and put it on the back of my head and started, you know, treating the back of my head.</s>BLITZER: So how seriously injured -- how seriously wounded are you right now?</s>BADGER: Well, the wound is about three inches long. It's about a half-inch across and about a quarter-inch deep.</s>BLITZER: Do you -- what is the prognosis for you? What are the doctors saying about your recovery, the healing of this wound?</s>BADGER: They -- they took me in the ambulance and took me to St. Mary's Hospital. And right away, they did an MRI and a CAT scan. And the doctor -- everybody very professional there, too. But Dr. Brown (ph), she read the MRI and she said there was no damage, you know, to the brain or to the inside of this scalp.</s>BLITZER: Colonel, how are you dealing with this? What are you feeling? What's going through your mind?</s>BADGER: Well, you know, as far as the head is concerned, it's just numb. You know, I'm taking quite a few aspirin for any pain. But the first 24 hours, the adrenaline was running so much, that it -- you know, I was pretty steady the first 24 hours. I'm a little bit more nervous now than I was then.</s>BLITZER: Colonel, do you own or carry a gun?</s>BADGER: No. I have got a 21-year-old son. And when he was born, my wife made me get rid of .38. I had one up until that time. But, you know, if I could say something right now, that something is drastically wrong with what's going on in our United States right now. And when an individual is turned down to get into the military and then can be -- is able to go out and buy a .9-millimeter Glock pistol, and he had one of the -- or his clips were the extended clips that were limited to law enforcement only, and, you know, that -- or somebody has to put a stop to that.</s>BLITZER: Colonel Bill Badger, retired U.S. Army, thanks so much, not only for joining us. Much more importantly, thanks for doing what you did Saturday morning in Tucson. We appreciate it very much.</s>BADGER: Wolf, and thank you. And keep up the great work.</s>BLITZER: A remarkable 74-year-old man. These are live pictures from Tucson right now, the vigil continuing there, the vigil in memory of those who died, six individuals. Six lives were cut short by this gunman. The youngest victim was 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green. She was born on September 11, 1991 (sic). She was a third-grader, a student council member who was at Congresswoman Giffords' constituent meeting because of an interest in government. She was the only girl on her little league baseball team. Her father is a Major League scout. Her grandfather, by the way, was a Major League manager. John Roll, 63 years old, was Arizona's chief federal judge who had been speaking with a Giffords aide before the shooting. Phyllis Schneck was a 79-year-old grandmother who had retired to Arizona from New Jersey -- 76-year-old church leader Dorwin Stoddard died shielding his wife from the bullets. She was wounded, but is expected to recover. Dorothy Morris was also 76. Her husband and high school sweetheart was wounded. And 30-year-old Gabe Zimmerman was a Giffords aide and organizer of the event. He was engaged to be married. She was born in 2001, the little 9-year-old little girl. She was born in fact on 9/11. Just want to make that clear. She was not in 1991. She was born in 2001. That was Christina Taylor Green, 9 years old. So, what would cause a gunman to go on a shooting rampage at a political rally? Jack Cafferty is here with "The Cafferty File." Jack, what a horrible story.</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. Maybe, maybe, it was only a matter of time. For the last two years, the political rhetoric in this country has gotten more hateful and angry and divisive. We have seen guns at rallies and signs with nasty racist slogans. And now we have this tragedy in Tucson. Is there a link between this inflammatory rhetoric and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others? Bet on it. Several lawmakers from both sides of the isle are now calling for the political rhetoric to be toned down. They say politicians need to cool it and to think about how our words affect people. There's an idea. This is happening at the same time that some of them are deciding to start carrying guns. We talked about that in the last hour. Many are pointing fingers at Sarah Palin, who makes incendiary and irresponsible comments with some regularity. Palin once tweeted concerning the health care debate -- quote -- "Don't retreat. Instead, reload." She posted a map online before the midterm showing crosshairs of the kind you would see looking through a telescopic rifle sight over 20 contested Democratic districts, including Giffords'. At the time, Congresswoman Giffords said -- quote -- "When people do that, they have got to realize that are consequences to that action" -- unquote. Well, since the shooting, Palin has expressed her condolences and says she hates violence. The Tea Party movement, which has also been a cauldron of inflammatory rhetoric, is also distancing itself from the tragedy, condemning what happened. But even if there's no direct correlation here, people like Palin could bear some indirect responsibility for the mind-set of the shooter and others like him. Here's the question. What can be done to tone down the hateful rhetoric in this country? Go to CNN.com/caffertyfile. Post a comment on my blog -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I'm anxious to hear what our viewers think. Jack, thanks for the question. The Arizona massacre could have been worse if bystanders hadn't jumped into action. But is there something they should have done differently? And what would you have done? Also, he was in the hospital with Representative Giffords when she made her first movements. A member of her congressional staff is standing by the join us. And you're looking at a live picture from outside the Tucson hospital where the congresswoman is recovering. Flowers, candles, balloons, they are all marking the site. We will have much more on the tragedy, the aftermath, and the political fallout. That's coming up.