THE young girl represented the future of a nation in its darkest hour. As a baby Christina-Taylor Green featured inFaces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, a book that emerged from the horror of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Now she is dead, the victim of a killing rampage that has left the nation reeling again.
Christina-Taylor was shot dead after accompanying a neighbour to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords outside a shopping mall in her home city of Tucson.
''The neighbour, who also was shot, thought it would be nice if she brought Christina-Taylor up to the Safeway,'' her uncle, Greg Segalini, said. ''[She] took one on the chest and she is dead.''
Bystanders gather at the shopping centre where a gunman opened fire.Click for more photos

Tucson shooting

Bystanders gather at the shopping centre where a gunman opened fire. Photo: AP
  • Bystanders gather at the shopping centre where a gunman opened fire.
  • The scene of the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in which five people were killed and a US congresswoman was shot in the head.
  • Police speak to a man at the scene of the Tucson shooting.
  • Emergency personnel airlift the wounded following the shooting.
  • Police investigating the shooting of US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17 others.
  • President Barack Obama speaks after the Tucson shooting.
  • US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.
  • Killed ... District Court Judge John Roll
  • Nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was shot outside a Tucson supermarket and died in hospital.
  • Christina Taylor ... a picture from the book 'Faces of Hope: Babies born on 9/11'. Now aged 9, she was one of those killed in the Tucson shooting.
  • Jared Lee Loughner, shown here in a yearbook photo, has been arrested over the shooting.
Her mother, Roxanna, told The Arizona Star: "She was born back east. September 11 affected everyone there and Christina-Taylor was always very aware of it. She was very patriotic and wearing red, white and blue was really special to her.''
Her mother said her daughter was aware of the inequities in the world. "She was all about helping people and being involved. It's so tragic. She went to learn today and then someone with so much hatred in their heart took the lives of innocent people."
Christina-Taylor's father, John Green, told the newspaper his daughter had just been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School and had been interested in politics.
Dead ... Christina-Taylor Green was a student council member eager to meet her congresswoman.
Dead ... Christina-Taylor Green was a student council member eager to meet her congresswoman.
''She was a good speaker. I could have easily seen her as a politician.''
Christina-Taylor loved ballet, gymnastics, animals and, unsurprisingly, given her pedigree, was a keen baseball player - the only girl on a team called the Pirates, where she played second base. Her father is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and her grandfather, Dallas Green, managed the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1980 World Series championship.
In a statement, the Dodgers' owner, Frank McCourt, said: ''We lost a member of the Dodgers family today.''
Christina-Taylor had recently made her first Holy Communion at the St Odilia Catholic Church in Tucson.
Bishop Gerald Kicanas wrote in a letter to parishioners sent from Jordan: '' 'Let the children come to me,' Jesus said (Matthew 19:14). Christina is with Him.''