TUCSON — The federal judge killed in the Arizona shooting rampage was known for an immigration ruling that got him death threats, but on Friday he was remembered as a man devoted to his family, his basset hounds and his Irish-Catholic heritage.
U.S. District Judge John Roll had stopped by a supermarket meet-and-greet for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday when he was killed, along with five others. Giffords, recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, was still in critical condition, but progressing.
Roll’s funeral Friday came amid tight security, as police officers and SWAT team members patrolled the neighborhood around St. Elizabeth Ann Seton church. About a dozen coach buses brought judges who knew Roll over the years.
The speakers focused less on Judge Roll and more on John Roll, tender and at times goofy, and largely hidden from those he served.
“It made it very personal,” said Carol Bahill, 61, whose husband knew Roll from his undergraduate and law school days at the University of Arizona. “You do feel like you knew something about him personally.”
The media were barred from the event at the request of Roll’s family and for security reasons. The Associated Press interviewed mourners, such as Bahill, as they left the service and got an account of the funeral.
Roll’s older brother, Ed, told mourners that his family moved to Arizona from Pittsburgh when Roll was a child because their mother’s health was failing and doctors thought the weather might help.
When Roll’s mother eventually died, of a heart condition, the future judge was just 15.
Her death deeply affected him, and he changed his middle name from Paul to his mother’s maiden name of McCarthy “to keep that part of the family alive,” Bahill said.
Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, was among the mourners Friday. In a brief news conference, her doctors said she was progressing in her recovery.
Also, documents released Friday showed that shooting suspect Jared Loughner, 22, bought bullets at a Walmart, posted “Goodbye friends” on the Internet and took photographs of himself partially clothed and holding a gun.
A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to do so, said authorities have photos of Loughner posing partially clothed with a Glock 9mm pistol. Walgreens turned the photos over to the police. Loughner took the 35mm film to be developed the day before the shooting, according to the official.
