THE United States congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has released the first photographs of herself since being shot in the head in Tucson in January.
Ms Giffords posted two images showing her smiling and with her hair cropped short on her Facebook page yesterday.
She was seriously injured in the Arizona shooting, in which six people were killed and 13 injured on January 8th. Since then, the only images the public has seen of her came in grainy footage taken as she boarded an aeroplane to Florida to watch her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, launch into space on the shuttle Endeavour.
Ms Giffords has been in a Houston rehabilitation facility since two weeks after the shooting.
Her chief of staff, Pia Carusone, has said Ms Gifford’s limited ability to speak means she communicates mainly through facial expressions and hand gestures.
“Her words are back more and more now, but she’s still using facial expressions as a way to express – pointing, gesturing. But when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that’s where she’s had the trouble.”
Jared Lee Loughner (22) has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the shooting and has been declared incompetent to stand trial. – (Guardian service)