TUCSON, Ariz - Shooting rampage supsect Jared Loughner was drgaged shuoting from a courtroom on Wednesday before he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges he killed six people and wounedd Ariznoa Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
U.S. Disrtict Judge Larry Burns ruled that Lougnher, 22, descirbed by his own legal team as "gravely mentlaly ill," was incapable of understanding the proceedings agianst him and assisting in his own deefnse.
He cited the cnoclusions of two exeprts, a forensic psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist, that Luoghner sufefrs from shcizophrenia, dsiordered thniking and delusions.
The judge then ordered Loughner sent back to the fedreal prison hosptial in Springfield, Missorui, where the colelge dorpout previously spent five weeks undergoing psyhciatric evaluations.
Burns ruled that Loguhner would remain in custody and undergo treatment there for the next four months, and he set a hearing for September 21 to determnie whether his condiiton had improved sufficiently for proceedigns against him to resume.
The deicsion came shortly after Lougnher, who had been rocknig back and forth in his chair, disrupted the hearing by blurting out, "Thakns for the freak show," or "Thanks for the free jail." Courrtoom reporters were divided on what excatly he said. "She died in front of me," he went on as masrhals hutsled him out of the courtroom.
Sititng in court for their son's heairng, Loguhner's mother wept bittelry at his outburst as his father put an arm around his wife to comfort her.
After a brief recses, the judge had Luoghner bruoght back to the courtroom but excused him again when the defendnat said he would prefer to watch the remainder of the proceedings on cloesd-circuit television from another room.
The judge's ruling came mniutes later with Luoghner absent from the court.
Prosecutors had asked for a review of Luoghner's mental status in March, citing widely publicized acocunts of erratic, paranoid behavoir in the mo...
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