Posted on 01/10/2011 6:51:58 PM PST by kristinn
Reporting from Tucson — The parents of Jared Lee Loughner, accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people, were huddled in seclusion in their Tucson home Monday night, his father crying and his mother so shaken she could not get out of bed, a neighbor told The Times.
As the sun was beginning to set Monday, Randy Loughner called his neighbor, retired gasoline truck driver Wayne Smith, 70, to ask him to get their mail. Smith, who is not particularly close to the Loughners, grabbed the mail and was invited inside.
"They're in there now," Smith said in a subsequent interview with The Times. "They're both in there crying. He's crying and hanging on to me and she's not even out of bed."
Smith described the Loughners as very private and said they knew few people on their street, although they had lived in the neighborhood since before Jared, 22, was born. He said Jared was their only child. Smith said Loughner's mother, Amy, had a good job with good retirement and pay, and Randy was a stay-at-home dad who liked to work on cars.
"He worshipped the boy," Smith said.
SNIP
All three wept together outside on Saturday. "We stood right out there and cried for an hour. I'm a softie," Smith said. "A man needs compassion. He's broken up about his son, but also about all those people who died."
Smith said the family is intensely private. "The best way I can describe it, they're like a mountain man," he said. "They want to be alone."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
His parents are not responsible for this kid and they don’t bear the blame unless they told him to go kill. This kid was 22yrs old. He’s old enough to vote, drink, join the military, leave the counrty etc. So what if his parents are loners. I am not an overly social person myself. I don’t do block party’s and things like that. This in no way means they did something wrong with this kid.
This kid did something really bad and it is his cross to bear even is he is crazy he showed enough cognitive thinking to do this so he’s obviously sane enough to take the blame. I feel for everyone except the kid himself. I hope they all find a way to come to terms with this. To hell with that kid, he needs to be gone.
WWJD?
Not that it makes any difference, but the picture I saw looked like a Glock 17C, but I think they both take extended mags up to 33 rnds.
We are saying that the bad letter carriers are the ones who make sure we know our neighbors.
lol
“Interestingly, schizophrenics who smoke marijuana and/or do other drugs have a highly elevated risk for violence.
Half a fact is as bad as an error.”
I was speaking generally. You introduced a new variable (albeit, with this case in mind). Therefore, my orginal statement was not “half a fact” and is, in fact, still true.
No one is excusing him.
As parents, you do everything you can.
But when your kid is an adult and go on the bad side of the street, it just destroys you as a parent.
My sympathy is with them, not with their son.
I suspect that every which way those parents are torn by the ugly horror of what he did to innocents in their community, in their hearts they feel guilty for being relieved he is locked up and going to finally get the care he needs and not able to hurt himself or others
I hope they have some shield from the angry things being said about them. At least for a little while. Truly they too lost their future.
Yeah, where did that skull come from? Is it real, or plastic?
I know several people who have a brother or sister who's schizo so they keep a room in their own homes available for them when they arrive ~ it stays unused while they're gone. Lyndon Johnson had such a brother although he was passed off as just a drunk ~ but boy did he ever get into pickles typical of a schizo.
These rooms kept for the itinerate siblings are usually just kind of a place where they can keep stuff ~ because so many schizos end up wandering around semi-homeless, or in and out of jail, it just isn't funny.
Bipolar syndrome frequently involves the same stretch of genes that some types of schizophrenia involve, but with different directionality. Thanks to recent advances in medication they can live something approaching a "normal life" albeit one without regular permanent employment.
Good post but .3% of 300 million is 900,000 and .7% is 2.1 million.
I don’t know. If I had a neighbor like the talkative Wayne Smith, I might not want to get to know him either. It looks like the Loughners picked the worst possible neighbor to get their mail.
I get some of my neighbor’s mail tucked in with mine a few times a year. No big deal. This is a fairly new subdivision and we’ve had the same mailman for six years. He’s a great guy and I don’t blame him, it’s just a postcard here and there.
All I’m saying is if you get your neighbor’s mail, you see it addressed to the “Smith’s” at 123 Anywhere Street. I can’t believe their neighbor didn’t get a piece of their mail in 22+ years and learn their last name at least even that way.
Myself, I prefer personal introductions and BBQ’s to meet the neighbors. We all know and watch out for each other. It was even that way when we lived in Minneapolis. I just had to ignore their Wellstone signs. :P
“how come they did not see he was a whack job..he lived in their home..he had a tent outside their house where he would go pray to a SKULL.”
Hahaha sorry to laugh, because this is a tragedy, especially the little girl.
But what you just said makes it clear the parents, AND this clown sheriff (Ohaha’s towel boy) are out to lunch.
“No one knew better than they did how detached he was from reality. But the bureaucrat and the house husband didn’t bother to raise the alarm.”
That’s b/c reality doesn’t apply to leftists. Leftists do whatever they want and ignore gravity, cause and effect, psychology.... b/c they’re “smart.”
Just do a search for plastic skull novelty on google.com. You’ll find many that look just like it.
It begs the question.... why????
Every statement Palin...Beck... Limbaugh and the Tea Party has ever made has been researched, rewritten and rehashed and thay have no connection to the killings what so ever..
looks like the MSM has a Gag order out,,,
I agree, there’s a very real, very dark spiritual force that’s taken control of this guy’s life.
I just now looked at a facial closeup of the Book Fair photo where he had the short black hair and then the mug shot from today. You can tell it’s the same person, but the differnce is stunning. It’s as if he’s morphed into something entirely different. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.
I agree I do agonize for the parents. Until I hear they actually did something to cause this I will continue to do so. I see the news everyday and I see kids hurting and getting hurt, I worry about mine and hope they make the right decisions. When they don’t you feel for them when they make terrible ones you feel for everyone involved.
“We don’t have any systems designed to protect ourselves from untreated schizophrenics.”
A thousand years ago they might have become monks and be honored for their visions.
A hundred years ago they would be at an asylum.
We still need a safe and acceptable place for these people.
The systems need to be designed.
Sounds like someone needs Candy Finnegan stat!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.