Shot Congresswoman Giffords' condition upgraded from 'critical to serious', says husband

Washington, Jan 17 (ANI): The husband of shot Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords has claimed that she has been upgraded to serious from critical.

Mark Kelly spoke publicly for the first time on Sunday while attending a memorial service for Gabriel Zimmerman, Giffords' aide, who was killed in the shooting.

Addressing hundreds of mourners gathered in the courtyard at the Tucson Museum of Art, he said that his wife was "improving a little bit each day. She's a fighter."

"I know someday she'll get to tell you how she felt about Gabe herself. Giffords loved Zimmerman "like a younger brother," and was inspired by "his idealism, his strength and his warmth," Kelly added.

About 300 people gathered at a midtown park on Sunday morning and marched about two miles to Giffords's district office, calling it a "walk for peace" to honour the victims of the shooting, the New York Times reports.

Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and 18 others were shot last Saturday by a gunman outside a supermarket where Giffords was meeting with her constituents.

Yesterday, her doctors had said that she was taken off a ventilator, adding that Giffords had been breathing on her own since the time she was admitted following the Tucson massacre, but the breathing tube had been left until now as a precaution.

Twenty two-year-old Jared Loughner, the gunman, has been charged with several offences and could face the death penalty if found guilty. (ANI)