Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords blows a kiss Sept. 6, 2012, after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. A spokesman on Thursday said Connecticut’s lieutenant governor has been invited to attend a meeting between Giffords and families of the victims of the deadly Newtown elementary school shooting.NEWTOWN, Conn. – Nearly two years after being critically wounded in a mass shooting, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Friday met with families of victims in last month’s shooting that left 26 people dead inside a Connecticut elementary school.
Giffords was accompanied by her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, at the private meeting in Newtown that was also attended by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
“As always, I was deeply impressed by the strength and courage and resolve of the families and the extraordinary caring and generosity of Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly in visiting with them,” Blumenthal said.
Giffords met earlier in the day with officials including Connecticut’s lieutenant governor and Newtown’s first selectman.
Giffords was left partially blind, with a paralyzed right arm and brain injury, when a gunman opened fire at a constituent meet-and-greet outside a Tucson grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011. Arizona’s chief federal judge and five others were killed and 13 people, including Giffords, were injured.