TUCSON — Randy Loughner was always reclusive. But since his son’s alleged shooting rampage last month, the father has shut himself behind what one neighbor calls “an elaborate cage.”
In recent weeks, Loughner has built a substantial wooden enclosure, more than 6 feet high, obscuring his front door and windows. The four horizontal windows on the garage door have been papered over, the diamond-shaped openings atop the block wall to his back yard closed off with little plywood plugs.
Even the white mailbox out front has been replaced by a heavy black steel one with a locked drawer.
“He was already secluded, so he was already set up for it and used to it,” said Stephen Woods, who lives in the house to the left of Amy and Randy Loughners’. “So I imagine it’s not bothering him much. I don’t think his life has changed that much.”
But life has undoubtedly changed. Until Jan. 8, the couple’s 22-year-old son, Jared, shared the modest beige block and brick home where the couple have lived for nearly three decades. Now, he sits in a cell, facing federal charges of attempting to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides.
Six people, including a federal judge, were killed and 13 injured in the shooting during a Giffords meet-and-greet outside a Tucson grocery store. More charges are expected.
Except for a brief written statement, the Loughners have kept their silence. They have not returned messages left by The Associated Press, and relatives also have refused to talk.
Some thought the couple had moved away from the 1,400-square-foot home where they raised their only child. Then neighbors began hearing the hammers and saws.
Ron Johnson has seen the husband coming and going in his El Camino, one of several vintage cars he owns.
“He comes out after dark,” said Johnson, who lives in the house directly across from the Loughners but who hasn’t tried to speak with them in ages. “He comes out of that garage, closes it and scoots down that highway.”
Johnson said he tried to be friendly with the family. Loughner wouldn’t even look him in the eye.
George Gayan, 82, has lived to the right of the Loughners for nearly 30 years. When Jared was 3 or 4, he would come over to play with Gayan’s great-grandson. Amy Loughner, who works for the county parks department, would sometimes accompany him.
Gayan has never been in the Loughner home, and Randy Loughner has never been in his.
“He wants his privacy,” said Gayan, a widower. “I honor his request. I have no problem with that. People move out into the middle of the desert because they want their privacy.”
Woods said his relationship with Loughner was bad from the beginning. He had been in the house only a couple of days, he said, when Loughner began shouting obscenities at him over garbage left by previous residents.
