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By AMANDA LEE MYERS and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press


      TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect
in the assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less
than three hours before the deadly attack, authorities said
Wednesday as they pieced together more details of a frenzied
morning.

      Jared Lougher ran a red light but was let off with a warning at
7:30 a.m. Saturday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said. The
officer took Loughner's driver's license and vehicle registration
information but found no outstanding warrants on Loughner or his
vehicle.


      Wildlife officers don't usually make traffic stops unless public
safety is at risk, such as running a red light, the department said
in a news release, which didn't say where the stop took place.


      It's the latest evidence of Loughner's busy morning before
police say he shot and killed six and wounded more than a dozen at
a Tucson grocery store.


      Also that morning, Loughner, 22, ran into the desert from his
angry father, who was chasing his son after seeing him remove a
black bag from the trunk of a family car, said Rick Kastigar, chief
of the department's investigations bureau. Investigators are still
searching for the bag.


      The sheriff's deputies who swarmed the Loughners' house removed
what they describe as evidence Loughner was targeting Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords, who doctors said Tuesday was breathing on her
own for the first time after taking a bullet to the forehead. Among
the handwritten notes was one with the words "Die, bitch," which
authorities told The Associated Press they believe was a reference
to Giffords.


      Investigators with the Pima County Sheriff's Department
previously said they found handwritten notes in Loughner's safe
reading "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and "Giffords."
Capt. Chris Nanos said all the writings were either in an envelope
or on a form letter Giffords' office sent him in 2007 after he
signed in at one of her "Congress on Your Corner" events - the
same kind of gathering where the massacre occurred.


      Meanwhile, this city held a tribute to victims the eve of a
presidential visit.

      On Tuesday night, several hundred mourners filled a Tucson
church for a public Mass to remember the slain and pray for the
injured. As people filed in, nine young girls sang "Amazing
Grace." The youngest victim of the attack, 9-year-old Christina
Taylor Green, was a member of that choir.


      "I know she is singing with us tonight," said Tucson Bishop
Gerald Kicanas, who presided over the service.


      President Barack Obama visits Arizona Wednesday and will honor
the victims in a speech to a rattled state and nation.


      In one apparent reaction to the shooting, the FBI said
background checks for handgun sales jumped in Arizona following the
shootings, though the agency cautioned that the number of checks
doesn't equate to the number of handguns sold.


      Still, there were 263 background checks in Arizona on Monday, up
from 164 for the same day a year ago - a 60 percent rise.
Nationally, the increase was more modest: from 7,522 last year to
7,906 Monday, a 5 percent jump.


      Loughner's parents, silent and holed up in their home since the
shooting spree, issued a statement Tuesday, expressing remorse over
the shooting.


      "There are no words that can possibly express how we feel,"
Randy and Amy Loughner wrote in a statement handed to reporters
waiting outside their house. "We wish that there were, so we could
make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened.


      "We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We
are so very sorry for their loss."


      Sheriff's deputies had been to the Loughner home at least once
before the attack, spokesman Jason Ogan said. He didn't know why or
when the visit occurred, and said department lawyers were reviewing
the paperwork and expected to release it Wednesday.


      The visits were for nonviolent incidents, including a report by
Jared Loughner of identity theft, a noise complaint and Amy
Loughner's claim that someone had stolen her license plate sticker,
according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.


      In addition to the new details about the hours before the
shooting, interviews with those who knew Loughner or his family
painted a picture of a young loner who tried to fit in.


      Before everything fell apart, he went through the motions as
many young men do nowadays: Living at home with his parents,
working low-wage jobs at big brand stores and volunteering time
doing things he liked.


      None of it worked. His relationship with his parents was
strained. He clashed with co-workers and police. And he couldn't
follow the rules at an animal shelter where he spent some time.


      One close high school friend who requested anonymity to avoid
the publicity surrounding the case said he would wait outside 10
minutes for Jared to leave the house when they were going out. When
Jared would get into the car, he'd say that it took so long because
his parents were hassling him.


      The parents of another close friend recalled how Loughner's
parents showed up at their doorstep in 2008 looking for their son,
who had left home about a week before and broken off contact.


      While the friend, Zach Osler, didn't want to talk with the AP,
his parents Roxanne and George Osler IV did.


      With the Loughners at their house, Zach Osler told them the name
of the place where their only child was staying, Zach's father
said.

      Loughner was arrested in October 2008 on a vandalism charge near
Tucson after admitting he scrawled the letters "C" and "X" on a
road sign in a reference to what he said was Christianity. His
address listed on the police report was an apartment near his home.


      Loughner eventually moved back in with his parents.


      Even when Loughner tried to do good, it didn't work out.


      A year ago, he volunteered walking dogs at the county animal
shelter, said Kim Janes, manager of the Pima Animal Care Center. He
liked dogs; neighbors remember him as the kid they would see
walking his own.


      But at the shelter, staff became concerned: He was allowing dogs
to play in an area that was being disinfected after one had
contracted a potentially deadly disease, the parvovirus.


      "He didn't think the disease was that threatening and when we
tried to explain how dangerous some of the diseases are, he didn't
get it," Janes said.


      Loughner wouldn't agree to keep dogs from the restricted area,
and was asked to come back when he would. He never returned.


      Loughner also jumped from paid job to job because he couldn't
get along with co-workers, according to the close high school
friend who requested anonymity. Employers included a Quiznos
sandwich shop and Banana Republic, the friend said.


      On his application at the animal shelter, he listed customer
service work at Eddie Bauer.


      Loughner grew up on an unremarkable Tucson block of low-slung
homes with palm trees and cactus gardens out front. Fittingly, it's
called Soledad Avenue - Spanish for solitude.


      Solitude found Loughner, even when he tried to escape it. He had
buddies but always fell out of touch, typically severing the
friendship with a text message. Zach Osler was one such friend.


      Loughner's father moved into the house as a bachelor, and
eventually got married, longtime next-door neighbor George Gayan
said. Property records show Randy Loughner has lived there since
1977.


      Gayan said he and Randy Loughner had "differences of opinion
but nothing where it was radical or violent." He declined to
provide specifics. "As time went on, they indicated they wanted
privacy," Gayan said.


      Unlike other homes on the block, the Loughners' is obscured by
plants. It was assessed in 2010 at $137,842.


      Randy Loughner apparently has not worked for years - at least
outside his home.


      Amy Loughner got a job with the county parks and recreation
department just before Jared was born, and since at least 2002 has
been the supervisor for Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Park on the
outskirts of the city. She earns $25.70 an hour, according to Gwyn
Hatcher, Pima County's human resources director.


      Linda McKinley, 62, has lived down the street from the Loughner
family for decades and said the parents could not be nicer - but
that she had misgivings about Jared as he got older.

      "As a parent, my heart aches for them," she said.


      She added that when she was outside watering her plants she
would see Jared riding down the street on his bike, often talking
to himself or yelling out randomly to no one.

      McKinley recalled that once he yelled to some children on the
street: "I'm coming to get you!"


      Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus in
Tucson, Jacques Billeaud and Bob Christie in Phoenix, Christy
Lemire in Los Angeles and news researcher Julie Reed in Charlotte,
N.C., contributed to this report.

Gallery

Doctor: Giffords breathing on her own after attack

Neighbor: Parents of shooting suspect devastated

Minn. colleges say they watch for warning signs in students

Crime, Law and Justice

A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect
in the assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less
than three hours before the deadly attack, authorities said
Wednesday as they pieced together more details of a frenzied
morning.

Officers stopped suspect on day of Ariz. shooting

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