GRISLY AFTERMATH: EMT equipment and scraps of cloth lie scattered outside the Tucson supermarket where Jared Lee Loughner unleashed his bloody rampage. (James Palka)
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Wipe that smirk off your face, you sick S.O.B.
Jared Lee Loughner, the young wacko accused of shooting US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head and killing six others in Tucson, looked every bit the face of evil yesterday — grinning like a maniac as he appeared before a federal judge for the first time since Saturday’s massacre.
Loughner, 22, sported a shaved head and a cut or bruise on the right side of his forehead during the brief hearing in Phoenix federal court, where he was ordered held without bail on charges that included the attempted assassination of a congresswoman.
DOCTOR: NO CHANGE IN REP. GIFFORDS CONDITION OVERNIGHT
“Yes, I am Jared Lee Loughner,” the shackled killer told Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson in the courtroom packed with reporters and US Marshals.
“Yes,” Loughner replied again when Anderson asked whether he understood he faces a possible death sentence if convicted of murdering federal Judge John Roll in the shooting rampage that also wounded 14 at Giffords’ outdoor meeting with constituents.
Neither of Loughner’s parents — with whom he lives in Tucson — nor any other relatives were in court. Neighbors likened them to the fictional Addams Family.
Loughner’s dad, Randy, “is a very angry person” who tends to get involved in disputes, said a neighbor, Stephen Woods.
“He’s pretty much the neighborhood prick,” Woods, 46, said of the elder Loughner, although he added that Jared’s mom, Amy, is “just as nice as can be.”
“They’re like the Addams Family,” said Woods, who noted that the clan is well-known for keeping their home dark on Halloween and not putting up Christmas lights or decorations.
Indeed, a sick shrine Loughner had constructed remained standing behind his family home yesterday.
The bizarre tableaux featured a skull propped amid a circle of rotten oranges placed in a plant pot, set in front of a dish that resembled a sacrificial altar. Just to the right were several tall candles that appeared to have been recently used.
One high-school pal said that in the past few months, Loughner, who sold clothes at Eddie Bauer, had become suicidal and grew increasingly introverted, believing his friends were plotting against him.
The friend, Zane Gutierrez, said he and Loughner would hang out a couple times a week and often shoot pistols together. But when Loughner suggested they take target practice deep in the desert, Gutierrez became uncomfortable and balked.
Loughner also volunteered at the Pima County Animal Care Center to walk dogs last year, but was asked to leave after he kept walking the animals near a contaminated area, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Despite this, Gutierrez, 22, said, Loughner was “the best role model” for his friends, because he was very organized, physically fit, dressed well and held a steady job.
In court, Loughner’s lawyer argued that because Judge Roll was one of the victims, all Arizona judges should recuse themselves from handling the case.
All of the federal judges from Tucson already had done so.
Judge Anderson told federal defender Judy Clarke to file her request in writing, along with another motion that the Phoenix US Attorney’s Office be barred from handling the prosecution.
Clarke is a seasoned veteran of federal death-penalty cases, having represented Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber. Both killers faced the death penalty but instead accepted plea deals for life sentences.
Anderson ordered Loughner held without bail, calling him a “danger to the community.”
The judge, who told him his next court appearance will be Jan. 24, said, “Good luck to you, Mr. Loughner,” as he adjourned the hearing and the defendant was escorted out.
The aftermath of Loughner’s rampage reverberated around the United States and even into outer space yesterday.
Flight controllers in Houston fell silent as Scott Kelly, commander of the International Space Station and twin brother of Giffords’ astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, spoke via radio, leading NASA in a moment of silence.
“As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is not. We’re better than this. We must do better.”
And President Obama led the nation in a moment of silence honoring the victims.
Loughner’s dad stayed holed up in his house yesterday, having erected a plywood barrier on his front porch. When FBI agents showed up in the middle of the day, they pounded on the barricade before gaining entrance.
Another high-school classmate of Loughner’s told Mother Jones magazine that the killer called him at 2 a.m. the morning of the shooting and left a message saying, “Hey, man, it’s Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later.”
The classmate, Bryce Tierney, told the magazine that he immediately suspected Loughner had committed the massacre once he heard that Giffords was among the victims.
He said Loughner had held a grudge against the congresswoman since 2007, after she gave him what he considered a nonresponsive answer to him at an event.
He had asked Giffords, “What is government if words have no meaning?” Tierney said.
Loughner, a registered independent who did not vote in last November’s election, often told friends that Giffords was a “fake,” Tierney told Mother Jones.
Susan Ward, a Tucson woman who moved into a home previously occupied by a community-college classmate of Loughner, told The Post that she contacted the local sheriff to report that a man who may have been Loughner skulked outside the house last summer and scared her by staring inside for up to a half-hour.
“It was a really creepy experience,” Ward said.
“If that’s [Loughner], then he’s been crazy for a long time.”
The prior occupant, Lynda Sorenson, had complained to officials at Pima County Community College about Loughner’s loony antics in class, saying in an e-mail, “Hopefully he will be out of class very soon and not come back with an automatic weapon.”
Loughner was later suspended.
In 2008, he was arrested after leaning out of his parents’ 1969 Chevy Nova and scrawling graffiti on a street sign, The Wall Street Journal said.
He told cops the drawing combined the letters “C” and “X” and that it meant “Christian.”
The paper also reported that hours before Loughner went on his shooting spree, he tried to buy ammo at a local Walmart but was turned away. He later was able to buy the bullets at another Walmart.
And surveillance footage shows Loughner standing behind Roll while waiting to speak to Giffords, the Journal reported.
Meanwhile, multiple federal agencies are doing a joint assessment to see whether Loughner has any link to the several fiery packages that were sent to the head of the Homeland Security Department and Maryland state officials last week, a source told The Post. So far, no link has been found.
Additional reporting by Michael Chansley in Tucson