The horrific shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others Saturday is hard enough to comprehend, even without knowing that one of the victims was a little girl.
Among the six killed and 13 injured reportedly in Tucson, Ariz. was 9-year-old third-grader Christina-Taylor Green. Green had two personal connections to Major League Baseball; She was a daughter of Los Angeles Dodgers scout John Green and a granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green.
From the portrait painted in the Arizona Daily Star, she seemed like a neat little girl all on her own:
• Already a good speaker, her father said, Green recently was elected to the student council at her elementary school.
• Green told her parents she wanted to attend Penn State and make a career helping those less fortunate.
• She loved animals and dancing — especially ballet — along with hip-hop and jazz music.
• She was athletic, too; Green liked to go swimming with her 11-year-old brother, also named Dallas. She also was the only girl on her Little League baseball team. She played second base.
• Green told her parents she wanted to attend Penn State and make a career helping those less fortunate.
• She loved animals and dancing — especially ballet — along with hip-hop and jazz music.
• She was athletic, too; Green liked to go swimming with her 11-year-old brother, also named Dallas. She also was the only girl on her Little League baseball team. She played second base.
Her grandfather, 76, managed the Phillies when they won the World Series in 1980. He also managed the Yankees and Mets and was general manager of the Chicago Cubs.
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt released a statement:
"We lost a member of the Dodgers family today. The entire Dodgers organization is mourning the death of John's daughter Christina, and will do everything we can to support John, his wife Roxana and their son Dallas in the aftermath of this senseless tragedy. I spoke with John earlier today and expressed condolences on behalf of the entire Dodgers organization."
A budding political scientist, the young girl was there to meet Giffords when Jared Loughner allegedly opened fire.
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The nine-year-old girl with her own bright political future, the federal judge, and the aide who was about to be married: The victims of the Safeway massacre
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:05 AM on 9th January 2011
Last updated at 8:05 AM on 9th January 2011
Christina Taylor Green was nine years old and already had a bright political future.
She had just been elected to the student council at her elementary school - a post that would be added to her ballet and basketball extracurriculars - and her family were unable to hide their pride.
Hearing of her victory, a kindly neighbour asked if Christina wanted to tag along to a political event that she thought the young girl would enjoy.
Vigil: Holding candles, people gather outside University Medical Center where many of the Arizona shooting victims - including Gabrielle Giffords - were taken last night
Peace: A picture of Mrs Giffords is surrounded by candles at the vigil last night
It was a sunny Arizona Saturday morning, and Christina was about to meet a woman she would have looked up to - a powerful, beautiful role model, a Congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives.
The little girl must have felt on top of the world. She never suspected that it would be the last day of her life.
For the event that Christina was invited to was none other than the Tucson, Arizona rally hosted by Gabrielle Giffords yesterday - the same event where a madman with a semi-automatic and a grudge against humanity sprayed bullets into a trapped crowd who had no way of escape.
Victim: Federal judge John Roll, who died in yesterday's shooting
Witnesses estimated that there were roughly 25 people in the parking lot outside a Safeway supermarket in Tucson yesterday.
Due to the way the event was laid out, one told CNN, there was little room for escape once the gunman started firing.
Eighteen of them were shot, six killed - including little Christina.
'How do you prepare for something like this?' her uncle, Greg Segalini, asked reporters outside his niece's house.
'My little niece got killed. Took one on the chest and she is dead,' he told The Arizona Republic.
'She was real special and sweet,' he said.
Christina was the youngest and the most vulnerable of the victims of the Arizona gunman yesterday.
But the powerful were cut down by his bullets too.
Federal Judge John Roll, appointed to the bench by former President George Bush in 1991, was also killed in Arizona yesterday.
An aide to Mrs Giffords, Gabe Zimmerman, was also killed. The 30-year-old was due to be married this year.
The other victims include Dorwin Stoddard, 76, Dorthy Murray, 76, and Phyllis Scheck, 79.
Little is known about the other victims as yet - but Judge Roll's life is well-documented.
He won wide acclaim for a career as a respected jurist and leader who had pushed to beef up the court's strained bench to handle a growing number of border crime-related cases.
'I have never met a more sincere ... fair minded, brilliant federal judge or any judge for that matter in my whole life,' Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said.
Every second counts: A victim is rushed to a medical helicopter in the aftermath of the shooting yesterday
Dupnik emotionally recounted Roll's final morning. A typical Saturday: a trip to church, then to the store and most likely a plan to go home to help with chores.
But before heading home, he apparently stopped to visit briefly with Giffords at an event she was holding for constituents.
'Unfortunately, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,' Dupnik said.
Mark Kimball, a Giffords aide who was at the shooting scene at a shopping centre, told The Associated Press that he believed the judge, who lived in the area, had simply gone to the supermarket where the shooting occurred to shop.
Kimball said Mrs Giffords had worked with the judge in the past to line up funding to build a new courthouse in Yuma.
Named chief judge for Arizona in 2006, Roll pushed for more judges placed on the court's bench as border violence has swelled the district's caseload.
Unbearable: A woman covers her mouth in horror as another victim is evacuated from the Safeway shooting
'Judge Roll was a widely respected jurist, a strong and able leader of his court, and a kind, courteous and sincere gentleman,' said Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal circuit that includes Arizona.
'He worked tirelessly to improve the delivery of justice to the people of Arizona.'
Republican Sen. John McCain said he recommended Roll for federal appointment.
'Words are inadequate to express such a profound loss to his family, friends, state and country, but it is appropriate to note that a man of great qualities and character was struck down today,' Mr McCain said.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in Washington that the killing of Roll was a terrible loss for the judiciary.
Race against time: One of the victims from the shooting is rushed to a medical helicopter yesterday
Roll received death threats in 2009 after he denied a southern Arizona rancher's motions to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of illegal immigrants who alleged that the rancher detained, assault and threatened them, the Arizona Republic reported.
'It was unnerving and invasive ... by its nature it has to be,' Roll told the Phoenix newspaper in a mid-2009 interview.
He said he followed the advice of the Marshals Service to not press charges against four men identified as threatening him.
As a federal judge, Roll handled a wide variety of cases.
He ruled in 2009 that federal wildlife officials used incorrect criteria when deciding against designating critical habitat and develop endangered jaguars.
In the 1990s, he was among several federal judges who ruled that a federal gun law's requirement for a records check by local authorities violates the Constitution.
Roll was a Pennsylvania native who got his law degree from the University of Virginia. He is survived by his wife, Maureen, three sons, and five grandchildren.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345461/Arizona-shooting-Christina-Green-John-Roll-victims-Safeway-massacre.html#ixzz1AX98iz4k
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America continues to mourn and pray for all the victims and their families
