Ariz. Shooting Victim Makes Threats at Meeting

Jan. 16, 9:25AM ET

In an unexpected twist to the Arizona shootings, a man wounded in the attack was arrested and taken in for a psychiatric exam after he yelled "You're dead!' at a political activist at town hall meeting, authorities say.

James Eric Fuller, 63, was detained on misdemeanor disorderly conduct and threat charges Saturday during the event taped for ABC's "This Week" television program, Pima County sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan said.

Fuller apparently became upset when Trent Humphries, a leader in the independent tea party movement, suggested that conversations about gun control be delayed until all the dead from the Jan. 8 shooting were buried, KGUN-TV in Tucson reported.

Authorities said he took a picture of the leader and yelled "You're dead!"

Complete Coverage: Tragedy in Tucson

Ogan said deputies decided he needed a mental health evaluation and he was taken to a hospital.

Fuller, who said he was hit in the knee and back, was one of 19 people shot at a Safeway store in Tuscon. Six people died in that attack and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head.

Giffords was continuing to progress Saturday, with doctors replacing the breathing tube that connected her to a ventilator with a tracheotomy tube in her windpipe. They could soon know if she can speak. Doctors also installed a feeding tube.

Gallery: Arizona Shooting Victims

The New York Times reported that Fuller said last week he had been having trouble sleeping after he was attacked.

The paper said in an interview last week, Fuller repeatedly denounced the "Tea Party crime syndicate," and said he placed some of the blame for the shooting on Sarah Palin and other Republican leaders, saying they had contributed to a toxic atmosphere.

Meanwhile, as Tucson attempted to heal, the Safeway supermarket reopened and a memorial of flowers quickly grew outside.

Randy Larson, 57, came by to shop but instead found himself sitting quietly on the curb choking back tears.

"I can't come here and go about my day as usual," he said. "Why should it be usual for me when it's not for the victims?"

Elsewhere in town, an organization called Crossroads of the West held a gun show, one of many it hosts in several Western states. An estimated crowd of 4,000 showed up, though the mood was less upbeat than past shows, organizer Bob Templeton said. Gun enthusiasts mingled in the county fairgrounds building, discussing Second Amendment rights and buying handguns, rifles and other weapons.

The group considered canceling the event, but decided Tuesday it would go on, said Templeton, adding that the shooting was not about gun rights, but rather "a deranged person who was able to carry out whatever his agenda was."

Also Saturday, Pima Community College released a video that shows suspected shooter Jared Loughner, 22, giving an improvised nighttime campus tour and rambling about free speech and the Constitution.

Loughner provides an angry narration that includes statements such as, "I'm gonna be homeless because of this school," and calling Pima "a genocide school." College officials confirmed that the video, discovered on YouTube, led them to suspend Loughner from school on Sept. 29.