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(soft music)
- Hello, I'm Tom McNamara, host of Arizona Illustrated.
January 8th, 2011 is a day that's seared into the memory
of most of us in Southern Arizona.
For it was on that day, 10 years ago,
that a gunman opened fire on a small gathering
outside of a Tucson supermarket.
19 people from our community were shot,
six of them died.
For those who witnessed it,
lost someone, or were injured,
January 8th, changed everything.
To Mark that day, remember those we lost,
and continue to move our community forward,
we sat down with five people
who were impacted in profound ways.
(soft music)
Pam Simon worked for her friend,
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords,
and was at the Congress on Your Corner event.
Pam survived having been shot in the arm and chest.
Longtime journalist, Mark Kimble, was Giffords' press aid.
He was not injured during the shooting,
and aided those who were.
Nancy Bowman, a registered nurse at the time,
And her husband, Dr. David Bowman
were shopping just inside the Safeway.
They emerged to treat the injured.
Trauma surgeon, Randall Friese, was on duty on January 8th
at University Medical Center, as it was then known,
and helped treat the victims, including Giffords,
and nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green.
- People who were not there
can't possibly understand what it was like
among a bunch of people.
Many of us knew each other,
many of us had never met each other before that day.
And they're now among my closest friends.
And we can go a year without seeing each other,
and then we run into each other,
and it seems like,
could this possibly have been 10 years ago?
- It's something that you can't forget, that's for sure.
And you know, you work through it,
you try to figure out ways to make your life
as normal as possible,
but there's always that little thing
on the back,
that little thing on your shoulder.
- Well, for me, I'm less trusting than I was before
of just what's going on around me.
I try not to be as blase that,
that guy who looks a little weird is,
he's just sitting on the bench.
Is he going to do something?
And I don't do anything about it
except to make note of it.
So, it's a part of me that I don't really like,
but it's there.
- It can touch any one of us.
And I don't think most people recognize that.
And it can be very, very earth shattering and earth shaking.
One day everything is fine,
and then the next minute someone is severely injured,
or murdered from gun violence.
- I just hold my children very close to me,
much more than I used to
because they can be taken at any moment.
- I keep a reminder on my desk.
The FBI gave back my bullet.
And so there isn't a day goes by
that I don't think about how grateful I am
to be here,
to be able to have seen the birth of my two grandchildren.
I just feel like every day is filled with gratitude.
- For me, it's like it happened yesterday.
Some days I just think,
so vividly the faces you saw, and what was happening,
and so that brings it right back.
Yeah, things are blunted, but you can never,
and should never get rid of that memory,
something like that.
And spend whatever energy you have
to try and make sure it doesn't happen again somehow.
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- It was a terrible tragedy.
One of the worst tragedies in Tucson's history.
We lost some amazing people that day,
six amazing people.
Six people who didn't really have much in common
with each other,
were brought together for one moment,
and that was the last moment of all their lives.
And they will be remembered as a group,
even though they didn't know each other
before they got to the Safeway
on January 8th, 2011.
- Gabe was a dear friend.
It's hard to look at his picture
without thinking of the loss.
Not only to all of us that knew him, and to his family,
and his fiance, but the loss to our world
because he was such an outstanding young man.
- And I see Roxanna, and John Green all the time,
and my heart breaks,
but I have this necklace that Roxanna gave me
that was made in memory of her daughter.
And I cannot take this off because if I take this off,
that means I'm forgetting to remember a nine-year-old girl
who now would be 19, and going off to college.
These were actual people, members of our community
that were stolen from us, and murdered.
And I don't want to forget that,
and I don't think anybody should.
And I want to remember their names,
and I want to honor their names.
And I want to do things that will honor them,
and honor our community.
- I think it helped our community
realize the sense of community again,
and the importance of a sense of community.
I mean, in the 21st century
we're so used to communicating in different ways,
and here the pandemic is forcing us to adapt again.
But I think that event here made us,
reminded us that we are a community.
We do matter to each other,
and we can get through tragedies by helping each other.
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- [Announcer] A commemorative ceremony,
in dedication of the January 8th Memorial,
entitled "Embrace," takes place
at the historic county courthouse in Downtown Tucson
on the 10-year anniversary of the shooting
shortly before 10:00 a.m on January 8th, 2021.
Due to corona virus concerns, the ceremony is private,
but you can view it live on the Pima County Facebook page.
The Memorial is scheduled to be open in February.
- All of the people you just heard from,
participated in AZPM's 2012 documentary,
"Together We Heal,"
and you can view the documentary on our website,
azpm.org/TogetherWeHeal.
And now, we take a moment to remember the six people
who were taken from us on January 8th, 2011.
Federal Judge John Roll,
Phyllis Schneck,
Dorwan Stoddard,
Dorothy Morris,
Christina-Taylor Green,
Gabe Zimmerman.
(soft music)