Photos of Giffords Released

(Newsroom America) -- The first photos of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot during a Tucson political event Jan. 8 were posted online Sunday, showing the Arizona Democrat sporting shorter, browner hair and smiling.

The two photos were posted on her Facebook page and were taken May 17 outside the Houston rehabilitation facility where she has been since being wounded five months ago.

Six people were killed and a dozen others wounded in that shooting.

Giffords has been tightly controlled since then. The photos released Sunday are the first clear images of Giffords since the attack.

She was seen in grainy images walking up steps to board a NASA plane in late April which took her to Florida to watch her husband, an astronaut, take off aboard the final space shuttle flight to the International Space Station.

That image was too blurry to confirm her identity, which was later done by doctors at a press conference in mid-May.

© 2011 Newsroom America.

Contact Jon E. Dougherty