Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to attend service marking shooting anniversary

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will return to Tucson on Sunday for a memorial service marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting that nearly took her life.

The vigil at the University of Arizona is one of several events in the area planned to honor the victims of the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting at a Giffords constituent event.

“Congresswoman Giffords wanted to be back in Tucson for this very emotional weekend,” Pia Carusone, Giffords’ chief of staff, said in an email statement. “She felt it was important to be in her hometown with her family, staff members and a few close friends.”

The event, titled “Reflections: Honoring the Lives of the Jan. 8 Shooting Victims,” will be led by Ron Barber, Giffords’ district director, who was wounded in the attack.

Giffords continues to recover from the injuries she sustained when a lone gunman shot her in the head at point-blank range.

A suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty and is being forcibly medicated at a Missouri prison facility after mental health experts determined he suffers from schizophrenia.

The trip to her district will be Giffords’ fourth since the shooting and the first since Thanksgiving, according to her office. She has been rehabilitating at her husband’s Houston-area home.

In a November ABC News interview, Giffords indicated she would seek a fourth term this fall only if her recovery was progressing.