(Corrects to eight-sentence statement, paragraph 4)
By Brad Poole
TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - The family of the accused gunman in the Arizona shooting spree expressed sorrow on Tuesday over the "heinous events" while the U.S. congresswoman shot in the head showed signs of improvement.
In their first public statement, relatives of Jared Lee Loughner, 22, said it was a "very difficult time" and asked for privacy.
"There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish there were, so we could make you feel better," read the statement, attributed to "The Loughner Family."
The eight-sentence statement did not mention the young man charged in the shooting at a Tucson shopping mall that killed six people, including a federal judge, and injured 14 others.
The shooting left U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition but breathing on her own days after a bullet passed through her brain.
"We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday," the family statement said. "We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss."
President Barack Obama plans to go to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for the dead, which included a 9-year-old girl. In Washington, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote to condemn the bloody rampage that nearly killed one of their own and stirred debate about the angry politics of recent U.S. campaigns.
Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, was in critical condition at a Tucson hospital but is "holding her own," responding to simple commands and breathing without the aid of her ventilation tube, her doctor said.
"She has no right to look this good. We're hopeful," said Dr. Michael Lemole, head of neurosurgery at the University Medical Centre.
"It's week to week, month to month," he said. "She's going to take her recovery at her own pace."
PARENTS DEVASTATED
Loughner is being held pending a January 24 preliminary hearing on five federal charges, including the attempted assassination of Giffords.
Two young men emerged from the home of the accused gunman in a middle class neighbourhood of Tucson and handed out the family's statement to a throng of media waiting outside.
A neighbour earlier told local media that Loughner's parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, were devastated.
"Their son is not Amy and Randy, and people need to understand that. They're devastated. Wouldn't you be if it was your child?" neighbour Wayne Smith, with tears in his eyes, told Phoenix's News Channel Three.
A CBS News poll released on Tuesday found a majority of Americans reject the view that inflamed political rhetoric contributed to the weekend shootings in Arizona.
The poll found 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, while 32 percent felt it did. The rejection of a link was strongest among Republicans, with 69 percent feeling harsh rhetoric was not related to the attack.
While the motive for the attack was not apparent, politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is common may have contributed.
Former President Bill Clinton cautioned that public officials should be careful about their language.
"We cannot be unaware of the fact that, particularly with the Internet, there's this huge echo-chamber out there," he told BBC News. "Anything any of us says falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike, and we just have to be sensitive to it."
Lawmakers in both political parties have called for greater civility in politics, and on Wednesday members of Congress will come together in a bipartisan prayer service.
Giffords' colleagues in Congress have put most of their work on hold after the shootings, which prompted many of them to reassess their own security and even their way of life.
The Republican-led House has postponed a vote to repeal Obama's controversial overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, which Giffords and other Democrats backed.
Loughner is accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic Glock pistol while the congresswoman greeted constituents in a supermarket parking lot.
"In a minute, he took away six loved ones, and took away our sense of well-being," Governor Jan Brewer said in a speech in Tucson. "There is no way to measure what Tucson and all of Arizona lost in that moment."
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Jerry Norton, Dan Whitcomb, Peter Henderson and Brad Pool; Writing by John Whitesides and JoAnne Allen; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
