THE 22-YEAR-OLD MAN CHARGED with murder and attempted murder after a multiple shooting in Arizona is due to appear in court today.

Jared Lee Loughner has been charged with the attempted assassination of Democratic US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and seriously injured in the incident.

Loughner is also facing two counts of first degree murder and two of attempted murder. He could be given the death penalty if convicted.

Police had earlier sought a second person in connection with the incident who was not involved but was understood to have driven the cab that brought Loughner to the location of the shooting. That person is not a suspect.

Letter from Giffords

Six people, including a nine-year-old girl and the chief federal judge in Arizona, were killed and over a dozen others injured in a shooting attack during a public event outside a supermarket on Saturday.

The Huffington Post and AP report that Loughner was charged after investigators found notes in a safe at his home which contained phrases allegedly written by Loughner including “my assassination” and “I planned ahead”.

It also included a 2007 letter from Giffords thanking Loughner for attending a public ‘Congress on Your Corner’ event similar to the one she was holding at the time of the shooting.

Giffords, a vocal supporter of Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill who had previously received threats, had been identified in a “target map” published by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin last year. Twenty House Democrats were identified on Palin’s target map, entitled “Its time to take a stand”.

Shot through the left side of her brain, Giffords remains seriously injured in hospital. Her doctors say they are cautiously optimistic about her recovery after she responded to simple tests.

Videos reportedly posted by Loughner on YouTube include one showing a figure burning the US flag and others concentrating on ‘mind control’:

How did Gabrielle Giffords survive a bullet through the brain? >