Like most students home on break, Alex Villec (COL ’13) decided to spend his time visiting friends back home. Villec—a former Washington and district office intern for Representative Gabrielle Giffords—assisted in running the “Congress on Your Corner” event yesterday in his hometown of Tucson because he wanted to visit friends he had made while serving as an intern.

As Villec checked constituents in at the event, Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter, came up to him and asked to speak to the congresswoman.

Villec told Loughner that he would have to go to the back of the line and wait about twenty minutes before he could talk to Giffords. After a few minutes, Loughner left the back of the line and started toward the congresswoman.

“He was intent when he came back,” Villec told the Arizona Daily Star. “I didn’t see his gun, but it was clear who he was going for. He was going for the congresswoman.”

In an interview with CBS 5, Villec said that he was approximately three feet from the congresswoman at the time of the shooting and is lucky to have not been in the line of fire.

Villec ducked for cover behind a pillar when he saw Loughner raise his hand and heard gunshots. He eventually ran for safety through the parking lot.

The federal government filed charges today against Loughner for the murder of a federal judge, two federal employees, and the attempted murder of a federal employee and congresswoman.

Video: @EricSperlingCBS

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 8:26 pm and is filed under News, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.