The Wall Street Journal, among other large-scale news outlets, has reported that Jared Loughner, the suspect in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, bought ammunition used in the massacre at a local Walmart hours before the shooting. That, as the story goes, was only after an employee at a different Walmart refused to sell the madman bullets.
Walmart, however, refuses to talk about any of it, despite several requests made by New Times and others.
Since Monday, we've called Walmart three times and sent the retail giant
two emails requesting an explanation as to why Loughner was refused
sale. Walmart didn't even have the courtesy to respond -- despite the
enormous level of public interest in the story.
Initial reports claimed that Loughner tried to buy ammunition from a
Tucson Walmart. The salesman, it's been reported, lied to Loughner and
told him he didn't have the ammunition he was requesting. The reports
claimed there was something about Loughner that -- not in so many words
-- freaked the salesman out.
We want to know what about Loughner was so off putting that Walmart refused to sell him ammo.
Frankly, if a guy looking like Loughner does in the now-infamous photo
taken by Pima County sheriff's deputies after the shooting tried to buy ammo
from us, we'd probably refuse to sell it to him, too. As we've noted,
Loughner looks like a maniac in the photo -- and based on accounts from
U.S. Marshal David Gonzalez, not much has changed since he's been in
custody.
We're planning on trying to squeeze some info out of Walmart again today. We'll let you know if they dignify us with a response.
