Mr. Loughner, dressed in a tan prison uniform, was returned to custoday after the hearing. He was assigned an attorney, Judy Clarke, a federal public defender who has handled the cases of Theodore J. Kaczynski, who was convicted in the Unabomber attacks, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the Al Qaeda operative.
The prosecutor in Pima County, where the rampage took place, vowed Monday to pursue state murder charges against Mr. Loughner as well.
“This is not just a professional matter for me but a personal one since I knew many of these victims,” Barbara LaWall, the Pima County attorney, said.
On Sunday, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Loughner, accusing him of killing two federal employees and trying to kill three others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was said to be his intended target.
Four bystanders were also killed and 11 others injured in the Saturday morning attack at a constituent event held by Ms. Giffords outside a supermarket, prompting Ms. LaWall to say that she would “definitely pursue charges on behalf of the nonfederal victims.”
County lawyers were still researching whether the state and federal cases could proceed concurrently or whether Ms. LaWall’s office would wait until federal prosecutors had finished their case. The state has no deadline to bring the matter before a grand jury because Mr. Loughner is in federal custody, not state.
Ms. Giffords remained in critical condition on Monday after surviving, against the odds, a single gunshot to the head fired at point-blank range. Doctors said they were increasingly optimistic because Ms. Giffords continued to be able to follow simple commands and there had been no additional swelling in her brain. Dr. G. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center at the University of Arizona, cautioned that swelling in cases like this could last days.
“At this stage in the game, no change is good,” Dr. Lemole said.
Doctors had removed nearly half of Ms. Giffords’ skull to prevent damage to her brain caused by swelling from the wound. While Ms. Giffords has remained under sedation, hospital officials corrected earlier statements that she had been placed in a medically induced coma.
An outpouring of grief has been on display around the country since the attack on Saturday. At a joint session of the state Legislature on Monday, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona scrapped her planned state of the state address and appealed for unity following the shooting.
"Arizona is in pain, yes. Our grief is profound," Ms. Brewer said. "We are yet in the first hours of our sorrow, but we have not been brought down. We will never be brought down.”
In Washington Monday, President Obama stood somberly with his wife, their heads bowed, overlooking the South Lawn of the White House at 11 a.m. Eastern time, as a single bell tolled to honor the wounded and the dead. On the steps of the East Front of the Capitol, hundreds of Congressional aides gathered to mark the moment. Staff members attended an interfaith memorial service in the Cannon House office building, organized by the Congressional Jewish Staffers Association and the House and Senate chaplains. On the ground floor of the Cannon Rotunda, a table was set up with a book of condolences and a book of well wishes for people to sign and send messages to the wounded and the families of those killed.
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Later at the White House, Mr. Obama said that the families of the shooting victims, and the nation as a whole, were still coming to grips with what happened and sorting out the lessons to be drawn, both heartbreaking and uplifting.
“Obviously all of us are still grieving and in shock from the tragedy that took place,” Mr. Obama said in the Oval Office where he was meeting on Monday with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. “Gabby Giffords and others are still fighting to recover. Families are still absorbing the enormity of their losses. We have a criminal investigation that is ongoing and charges that no doubt will be brought against the perpetrator of this heinous crime.”
Mr. Obama noted that there had been acts of heroism on Saturday.
“I think it’s important for us to also focus, though, on the extraordinary courage that was shown during the course of these events: a 20-year-old college student who ran into the line of fire to rescue his boss; a wounded woman who helped secure the ammunition that might have caused even more damage; the citizens who wrestled down the gunman,” he said. “Part of what I think that speaks to is the best of America, even in the face of such mindless violence.”
And Mr. Obama said he had been reaching out to the victims’ families. “In the coming days we’re going to have a lot of time to reflect,” he said. “Right now, the main thing we’re doing is to offer our thoughts and prayers to those who’ve been impacted, making sure that we’re joining together and pulling together as a country. And as President of the United States, but also as a father, obviously I’m spending a lot of time just thinking about the families and reaching out to them.”
Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., traveled to Tucson to oversee the shooting investigation at Mr. Obama’s request. He said on Sunday that agents were trying intensively to determine “why someone would commit such a heinous act and whether anyone else was involved.” Mr. Mueller added that discussions were under way to increase security for all members of Congress.
Capitol security agencies are planning to join the F.B.I. on Wednesday in a security briefing for members of Congress. Already, the United States Marshals Service has increased protection for federal judges in Arizona.
Investigators in Tucson focused their attention on Mr. Loughner, whom they accused of methodically planning the shootings, which occurred outside a supermarket.
Special Agent Tony M. Taylor Jr. of the F.B.I. said in an affidavit that an envelope found in a safe in Mr. Loughner’s home bore these handwritten words: “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords.”
The court documents said Mr. Loughner bought the semiautomatic Glock pistol used in the shooting at Sportsman’s Warehouse, which sells hunting and fishing gear, on Nov. 30 in Tucson.
The gun was legally purchased, officials said, prompting criticism of the state’s gun laws, which allow the carrying of concealed weapons. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik of Pima County, a critic of what he calls loose gun restrictions, bluntly labeled Arizona “Tombstone.”
The documents also indicated that the suspect had previous contact with the congresswoman. Also found in the safe at Mr. Loughner’s home was a letter from Ms. Giffords thanking him for attending a 2007 “Congress on Your Corner” event, like the one she was holding Saturday morning when she was shot.
Along with being accused of trying to kill Ms. Giffords, Mr. Loughner was charged with the killing and attempted killing of four government employees: John M. Roll, the chief federal judge in Arizona, who was killed; Gabriel M. Zimmerman, a Congressional aide, who was also killed; and Pamela Simon and Ron Barber, aides who were wounded. Mr. Loughner could face the death penalty if convicted.
The indictment against Mr. Loughner indicated that the authorities had surveillance video, which was not released, that captured events outside the supermarket. Outside lawyers said the footage would probably be saved for court. The authorities did release 911 tapes of the minutes after the shooting, at 10:11 a.m. Saturday, in which caller after caller, many out of breath, dialed in to report shots fired, many shots, and people falling, too many to count.
Mr. Mueller said additional state charges might be filed, and he did not rule out the filing of terrorism charges.
Mr. Loughner has refused to cooperate with investigators and has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, the Pima County sheriff’s office said.
Early Sunday, the authorities released a photograph taken from the surveillance video of a possible accomplice in the shooting. But the man later contacted sheriff’s deputies, who determined that he was a taxi driver who had taken the suspect to the mall where the shooting took place and then entered the supermarket with him when he did not have change for the $14 fare.
Seasoned trauma surgeons, used to seeing patients in distress, were shaken by the scale of the shootings.
“I never thought I would experience something like this in my own backyard,” said Dr. Peter M. Rhee, chief of trauma surgery at the University Medical Center, who has experience on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq and who likened what happened in Tucson to the mass shootings in those places.
Doctors treating Ms. Giffords said she had been able to respond to simple commands, an encouraging sign.
At a news conference at the hospital on Sunday, surgeons said she was the only one of the victims to remain in critical care at the hospital. They said she was lucky to be alive but would not speculate about the degree of her recovery, which they said could take months or longer.
“Over all, this is about as good as it’s going to get,” Dr. Rhee said. “When you get shot in the head and a bullet goes through your brain, the chances of you living are very small, and the chances of you waking up and actually following commands is even much smaller than that.”
Dr. Lemole, who operated on Ms. Giffords, said the bullet traveled through the left side of her brain “from back to front.” It did not cross from one side of the brain to the other, he said, nor did it pass through some critical areas that would further diminish her chances of recovery.
Officials said the attack could have been even more devastating had several victims not overwhelmed the suspect as he tried to reload his gun. A bystander, Patricia Maisch, who was waiting to meet Ms. Giffords, grabbed the gun’s magazine as the gunman dropped it while trying to reload after firing 31 rounds, officials said. Two men, Roger Salzgeber and Bill D. Badger, then overwhelmed the gunman, and another man, Joseph Zamudio, restrained his flailing legs.
In addition to Judge Roll, 63, and Mr. Zimmerman, 30, who was the director of community outreach for Ms. Giffords, the others who died were identified as Christina Green, 9; Dorothy Morris, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; and Phyllis Schneck, 79.
The new House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, denounced the attack in an early Sunday appearance in West Chester, his hometown, and said it was a reminder that public service “comes with a risk.”
Mr. Boehner urged people to pray for Ms. Giffords and the other victims and told his House colleagues to persevere in fulfilling their oath of office. “This inhuman act should not and will not deter us,” he said. “No act, no matter how heinous, must be allowed to stop us.”
He also said the normal business of the House for the coming week had been postponed “so that we can take necessary action regarding yesterday’s events.” That business had included a vote to repeal the health care overhaul.
Mr. Loughner had exhibited increasingly strange behavior in recent months, including ominous Internet postings — at least one showing a gun — and a series of videos in which he made disjointed statements on topics like the gold standard and mind control.
Pima Community College, which he had attended, said he had been suspended for conduct violations and withdrew in October after five instances of classroom or library disruptions that involved the campus police.
As the investigation intensified on Sunday, the police were still at the scene of the shooting, a suburban shopping center known as La Toscana Village. Investigators have described the evidence collection as a monumental task given the large number of bullets fired and victims hit.
All of the cars in the parking lot were scrutinized in search of a vehicle the gunman might have driven to the scene. Then the taxi driver stepped forward to help explain how the suspect had arrived.
Nobody knew for sure what compelled the gunman. Ms. Giffords, who represents the Eighth District, in the southeastern corner of Arizona, has been an outspoken critic of the state’s tough immigration law, which is focused on identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants, and she had come under criticism for her vote in favor of the health care law.
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