Mark Kelly says Boulder reminds him of wife Gabby Giffords getting shot in 2011
24 March 2021
Sen. Mark Kelly told Axios on Wednesday the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, brought back sad memories of when his wife, Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head outside a supermarket in Arizona.
What they're saying: “Because it was a grocery store, you know, reminded me a lot of what it was like in January 2011," Kelly said. "It's really heartbreaking. This happens all too often in our country. I mean two in a week, 18 people dead."
- Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Giffords, a House member who represented the Tucson area, became gun-reform advocates in the aftermath of her shooting.
- Following Monday's attack, which killed 10, Giffords herself tweeted it was "an especially personal tragedy for me. ... It’s been 10 years and countless communities have faced something similar. This is not normal."
Kelly, a former Navy fighter pilot and astronaut elected to Congress in November, told Axios the White House has not yet reached out to him about the shooting or to engage on potential gun reform. He remains hopeful they can work with Congress to finally find a solution.
- "The gun violence we see is unlike any other developed country, and there are things we can do about it. We know what works."
- He specifically called for better background checks on gun buyers.
Flashback: In January 2011, then-Rep. Giffords was shot in the head while delivering remarks outside a grocery store in Tucson, sustaining injuries that still affect her mobility and speech.
- Six people died, including her aide, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for Arizona and a 9-year-old girl.
- Last week, another eight people were shot and killed at three sites around Atlanta, Georgia.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.