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Gabrielle Giffords Releases Photos on Facebook

The first photos of RepresentativeGabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head in January in Tucson were released early Sunday.

The photos appeared on her Facebook page.

Both pictures show the congresswoman outside. In one she is alone and smiling at the camera, her hair trimmed short with the skin on the side of her head slightly discolored but with no clear sign of any scarring. In the other, she is sitting with a woman that the photo captions identified as her mother.

Ms. Giffords has been in a Houston rehabilitation facility since two weeks after the Jan. 8shooting. Six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Ms. Giffords.

Since the shooting, the only time the public was able to glimpse at Ms. Giffords was April 27 as she boarded a plane to Florida to watch astronaut husband Mark Kelly launch into space. The grainy footage showed Giffords slowly but purposefully walking up the airplane’s stairs.

The newly released photos provide a much clearer image.

Last month as Mr. Kelly was orbiting Earth, doctors repaired Ms. Giffords’ skull, finally freeing her from a cumbersome protective helmet that her staff members say she hated.

Ms. Giffords has made remarkable strides since the shooting, requesting her favorite foods, singing her favorite songs, and relearning how to walk and talk, although she struggles to string sentences together.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic published Thursday, the representative’s chief of staff Pia Carusone said Ms. Giffords’ limited speaking ability had led her to rely primarily on facial expressions and hand gestures to communicate.

“She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she’s still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing,” Ms. Carusone said. ”Add it all together and she’s able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But, when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that’s where she’s had the trouble.”

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the shooting and is being held at a Missouri facility. A judge declared him incompetent to stand trial, but prosecutors hope his competency can be restored so he can answer for the charges.