Loughner’s Parents Said To Be ‘Devastated’; Very Private

Loughner’s Parents Said To Be ‘Devastated’; Very Private

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The parents of the suspect in Saturday’s Arizona shooting rampage are “hurting real bad. … They are devastated,” a neighbor, Wayne Smith, told reporters Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Some details are beginning to come out about Randy and Amy Loughner, parents of the 22-year-old Tucson man who has been charged in the attack that left six people dead and 14 wounded — including the person who police say was the gunman’s primary target, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

ABC News says a “portrait of isolation” emerges in conversations about the Loughners with their neighbors, who “painted a picture of a single-child home that was intensely private and increasingly insular and standoffish as Jared Loughner grew older.”

The parents “want to know, where did they fail?,” Smith said, KPHO-TV reports. The station also writes that “Smith added that Loughner’s mom has been in bed, crying non-stop since Saturday.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Smith said the family is intensely private. ‘The best way I can describe it, they’re like a mountain man,’ he said. ‘They want to be alone’.”

“They liked their privacy,”  George Gayan, another neighbor, told the Journal. Sometimes, “I didn’t see him for three or four days.”

According to those reports, Randy Loughner may issue a statement today. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.