Man accused of wounding Arizona rep. declared mentally incompetent

JACQUES BILLEAUD Yahoo! News 05/25/2011 17:24

The man accused of wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a deadly rampage lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table Wednesday. When he lifted it, he began yelling, angry and loud. Federal marshals had to drag Jared Lee Loughner out of the packed federal courtroom. Minutes later, he was in a nearby room and, over a closed-circuit TV, could watch as U.S. District Judge Larry Burns declared him incompetent to stand trial.

Mental health experts concluded that the 22-year-old college dropout suffers from schizophrenia.

Burns ordered Loughner to a federal facility in Missouri for up to four months, where doctors will try to give him enough treatment to bring him to a point where he understands the case against him.

"You don't have to be a psychiatrist to know that the boy is disturbed," said Eric Fuller, who was shot in the knee and the back during the Jan. 8 shooting spree at a Giffords event outside a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket.

Fuller said he wouldn't be bothered if Loughner spends the rest of his life in a mental health facility.

"Hinckley has been gone for forever," Fuller said, referring to John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago and has since been committed to a psychiatric hospital.

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