TUCSON, Ariz. — For about 20 minutes, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband broke down in a plane's bathroom after believing incorrect media reports that his wife had been fatally shot at a political event outside a supermarket.
Astronaut Mark Kelly said he had rushed aboard a friend's plane to fly to Arizona after hearing of the shooting in Tucson, and that he saw the television report while traveling.
"I just, you know, walked into the bathroom and you know, broke down," Kelly told ABC television's Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired Tuesday. "To hear that she died is just — it's devastating for me."
The astronaut said he learned that she was alive when he called Giffords' mother, who was outside the operating room at the hospital where the congresswoman was being treated. He has said that he called an ABC affiliate in Houston to correct reports of his wife's death.
Giffords isn't aware that six people died in the shooting, including Gabe Zimmerman, one of her staff members, Kelly said.
Authorities say she was targeted by a 22-year-old constituent who had met her at a similar event in 2007.
The three-term Democrat was among 13 people who were also wounded in the massacre Jan. 8 outside a Safeway supermarket. She remained in serious condition after a bullet traveled the length of her brain.
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