Firefighter Refused Call to Giffords Shooting

Not everyone acted the part of hero intern at the Tucson shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. City memos show that a firefighter’s refusal to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting may have slowed the fire department’s response. It’s unclear exactly why the firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, refused to respond. At first, the department captain wrote that Ekstrum "mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it." But in a statement he gave the department on Wednesday, Ekstrum said he was "distracted to the point of not being able to perform my routine station duties to such an extent that I seriously doubted my ability to focus on an emergency call." In any case, the crew lost time arguing with Ekstrum and then stopping by another station to pick up a replacement for him on the way to the shooting. The department initiated disciplinary action against him before he retired two days later, says Joe Gulotta, an assistant fire chief, but would have reacted differently in light of his new explanation.