Tucson, Ariz. • The chief investigator for the Sheriff's Department here has for the first time publicly described the brief and gory video clip from a store security camera that shows a gunman not only shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords just above the eyebrow at a range of 3 feet but then using his 9 mm pistol to gun down others near her at a similarly close range.

The video, according to Richard Kastigar, the investigative and operational bureau chief of the Pima County Sheriff's Department, also reveals that Judge John M. Roll appears to have died while helping to save the life of Ronald Barber, one of Giffords' employees. Barber, who was near Giffords when he was shot twice, has since left the hospital.

Kastigar said the video shows Giffords standing with her back a few inches from the wall when she was shot by the gunman, who approached in "a hurried fashion" with the gun at his side and then raised it and fired a single bullet above her eye at a range of no more than 2 or 3 feet.

Jared L. Loughner, 22, has been arrested in the shootings. The pistol "is down near his right side, but it is visibly out from where he was keeping it, presumably under his clothing, and then he raises it and fires," Kastigar said. "It happens in a matter of seconds."

The gunman "was very deliberate in my estimation, very calculated," said Kastigar, who viewed the video as part of the extensive investigation by the Sheriff's Department that involves close to 250 people.

The video, he said, is now in the custody of the FBI.

In describing the video, the most detailed account yet of the initial five-second burst of fire, Kastigar said Roll was "intentionally trying to help Mr. Barber," adding, "It's very clear to me the judge was thinking of his fellow human more than himself."

The judge guides Barber to the ground, shields him with his body, and then tries to push both of them away from the gunman, who was no more than 3 to 4 feet away as he fired at both men, Kastigar said.

"He pushes Mr. Barber with his right hand and guides him with his left hand. The judge was on top of him and is covering up Mr. Barber, literally lying on top of him, and his back was exposed," Kastigar said.

The judge was shot in the back. More than a dozen video clips recorded from cameras at the scene and recovered from the hard drive of a security system at the Safeway grocery store outside which the shootings occurred Jan. 8 provide other new information about the minutes before the shootings, which left six dead and 13 wounded, including Giffords.

Some of their contents were first described in an article on The Washington Post's website Tuesday afternoon.

Giffords remains in the hospital in serious condition, and doctors said Tuesday that she "continues to improve physically and neurologically." —

Staff keeps Giffords office running after shooting

Tucson, Ariz. • As Congress returned to debate the repeal of the health care law, the staff of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was holed up in a bustling office 2,000 miles away, paying little heed to what was going on in Washington.

Five of them were focused on opening the estimated 10,000 cards left at makeshift memorials that have grown exponentially during the past week. Others took complaints from constituents whose homes have been foreclosed on and whose Social Security benefits have run out.

The Associated Press