A man accused of shooting and paralyzing a U.S. Army soldier at a homecoming party in his honor surrendered to authorities in California on Monday.
Christopher Sullivan, 22, had just returned home to California from Kentucky where he was stationed while recovering from injuries sustained during a suicide bombing attack in December 2010 while he was in Afghanistan. The San Bernadino County Sun reported that the Army specialist narrowly survived the attack which killed five members of his unit and left Sullivan with a cracked collar bone and brain damage. Sullivan was awarded the Purple Heart after the incident.
Sullivan, 22, was shot at the party in his honor on Friday after an "argument and physical confrontation" with 19-year-old Ruben Ray Jurado, San Bernadino Police Department Sgt. Pete Higgins told CNN.
Accompanied by an attorney, Jurado turned himself in to authorities in Chino Hills early Monday afternoon, said Lt. Gwendolyn Waters. He was then transferred to the custody of San Bernardino police and was to be booked into jail, she said.
Jurado will face charges of attempted murder, police said.
The fight broke out after Jurado and Sullivan's younger brother began arguing about football, his mother, Suzanne Sullivan, told CNN.
"[He] pulled out a gun and shot him twice," she said.
Higgins said Jurado then fled the scene after the shooting.
Suspect Ruben Ray Jurado is wanted by police.
Sullivan was rushed to a hospital where he was being treated, officials said.
"Right now, my son is hanging in physically," Suzanne Sullivan told CNN. "He's on 100% life support. He can move his head and he responds through nodding and blinking to us. His eyes aren't always open but we try to encourage him to do so as often as possible."
She said her son tried to ask what happened to him at the hospital and when they told him he wanted to know "Why?"
"We told him what it was about and he just closed his eyes," Suzanne Sullivan told CNN.
Suzanne Sullivan said she was told the suspect and her son may have gone to school and played football together.
She also said she couldn't believe what had happened to her son, who she said joined the Army to try and help her out.
"He's a wonderful son ... the best person you could meet on this Earth," she said. "He's a giver, not a taker and just wants to be there for and help people. He was so happy when he joined the Army because he really wanted to defend his country."
Sullivan and her family have been at her son's bedside at a local hospital. A fellow soldier from Christopher Sullivan's 101st Airborne Division brought the infantry's flag to the hospital, Suzanne Sullivan told CNN.
"He loved his platoon, he loved his fellow soldiers," she said as she began to sob. "He was so proud to serve our country."
Tears rolled down Christopher Sullivan's face when he saw the flag of the Screaming Eagles, the nicknamed for the division, his mother said.
"I asked Chris if he wanted to me to hang it on the wall or cover him in it," Suzanne Sullivan said. "He nodded that he wanted me to cover him with it. Once I did that he started to cry, which made me start to cry. It's been really hard on all of us."
She said she was distraught over the news that her son, who was already recovering from injuries sustained during his tour abroad, had returned home only to be paralyzed during a party in the U.S.
"He once told me that if defending this country takes his life so be it," she said. "But to see he survived that and now for this to happen to him, just breaks my heart."
Suzanne Sullivan said her family is having a difficult time coming to terms with what happened. They hope the Jurado will turn himself him.
"We just want justice to be done," she said.
Anyone with more information on this case is asked to call Det. Michele Mahan at 909-384-5619 or Sgt. Gary Robertson at 909-384-5663, or call WeTip anonymously at 800-78-CRIME.
– CNN's Carey Bodenheimer and Janelle Griffin contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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sounds like some Mexican gang related guy... needs a call for capital punishment... and of course limits on NRA crap so no one can get guns easily...
Of course, the idiots at CNN can't even spell San Bernardino right.
Allie, good catch, and while that is probably the worst of it, CNN also gives Sullivan's age twice (22). And that same paragraph, which spells San Bernardino incorrectly, looks like it was punctuated by a 3rd grader, i.e, two long run-on sentences. Maybe CNN left the interns in charge while they're on Christmas break.
And "Spell" and "Grammar" check has not "EVER" failed you on a rush assignment? You must be perfect! BTW – what does this have to do with the Soldier's situation or the story as a whole? Faux News may be a better medium for you to post.
I do not understand how we can go to other countries because of war and injustices when we are continually at war with ourselves in our own blessed country. I never realized the hate that has spread across our nation until now. It is like a ravenous plague ripping and tearing our homes apart as it marches forward from east to west and north to south. We need to do one thing this new year and that is Stop The Hate!! We all bleed red, now is the time to heal wounds instead of tearing more wounds, one action by this young man has harmed many people and anyone who has fought for my freedom to live deserves better than to be shot down like an animal. My heart and prayers go out to the Mother and Family as well as fellow soldiers of this brave young man and please pray for our Nation and those in it.
We are not at war with ourselves. We are at war with an Illegal Invasion Force from Mexico and beyond.
well said
Spence, you are a racist and an idiot.
That's what Spence gets for telling the truth: "You're raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist!" It's a reflexive libtard response to politically incorrect reality.
I see Spencer has his tinfoil hat on.
Hey Spencer you do realize that Mr Sullivan the heroic wounded soldier in the story is of Mexican descent as welll? So he MUST be part of the "illegal Invasion Force from Mexico and beyond" that's rolling around in what's left of your noggin?
Once they find the cowardly shooter, he must have his limbs slowly and painfully torn off his body. God bless the soldier.
Kalifornia. Full of illiterate, dependent, worthless, idiots from south of the border decent. Drunkards, drug addicts, rapists and murderers only here in the US because we make it soo easy for them to leach off our welfare generosity. And what do they give us back??? NADA!
God bless Christopher, recover STRONG!
You do realize that the soldier himself is from California? And that the kind of stereotyped hate you're spouting is the same kind that leads people to draw a gun when arguing about football? Way to completely miss the point of the story.
Where in the artice does it say the shooter was an illegal, or from Mexico. He may have played football with the victim, in high school, *based on the article. How is it that you fair minded people want to make everyone with a hispanic name, an illegal?
Before you denigrate an entire race, you may want to take a look at the soldier's picture. I'm pretty sure Christopher Sullivan is also hispanic. Didn't see it established anywhere that shooter is not a citizen of the US. You probably jumped to that conclusion based on his name alone. Shame.
Thats Right Zero, California is a terrible scary place... Please, for your own sake, never come here. Seriously.
Ruben Jurado = coward
Where do these people come from that shoot each other over a football argument? What lowlife hole did they crawl out of? I'm libertarian but sometimes forced reversible sterilization looks awfully good. Then you just have to prove you can actually support yourself and a family and don't do things like shoot people who don't like your football team, then maybe you can have kids.
Where do these animals come from? They come from California by way of Mexico. I cannot understand why we are fighting these wars in the Middle East, while the true invasion and threat to our national security comes from south of our borders. Living nearby in southern Nevada, I see the rapid decline of our nation, and I weep that our so-called leaders let it be destroyed by invaders. We need to support states like Arizona who fight to keep our nation safe and who let it be known that these dangerous invaders are unwelcome.
Now if more people had registered guns maybe that punk wouldn't have tried to shoot him. If he still decided to shoot he would have been dead already.
The NRA myth of carrying a gun as a defensive weapon. If that was true, no US soldier or peace officer would ever be shot.
Ah, the lure of the Old West. You took your arguments out in the street to see who was the fastest on the draw. Everybody had weapons and so it was always a "fair fight." That's what you'd like to see today Adam B?
If that system was so great, why did it disappear?
The NRA will come out with its usual "Guns don't kill people..." cliche. However, it is far, far easier to kill or injure someone with a gun than with a knife, sword, etc. Had there been no gun on the slime who shot him, it would have been a fist fight.
I doubt that would've have helped the soldier at all. A guy who is volatile enough to shoot someone in an argument over football is probably unlikely to have considered the possibility that others in the room might also have concealed weapons. The probably with an armed populace, is that there are a lot of people who act before they think, and being armed enables much more destructive actions.
California prisons are full, they'll just release him early. If they ever catch him.
The Lindsay Lohan sentencing is reserved for celebrities.
so, are we to assume that you have additional information that the shooter was recently released, "early" from prison?
If not, your comment has no relationship the subject.
I hope you cross my path Ruben Ray Jurado, you coward.
Is it possible to have a week without some emotionally unstable Mexican pulling a stunt like this? I would like to see "A Year Without A Mexican" and see just how well this nation could do without them.
You hav information that the shooter is from Mexico? Was he born n Mexico, or in the USA? Is he Mexican, or is he hispanic and from one of a number of countries, south of the boder? Are we prejudice?
There are plenty of unstable white people, black people, rich people, poor people, etc. who shoot people every single day with legally and illegally owned weapons. This shooting only made the national news because the victim was a decorated veteran.
AS A CATHOLIC I AM AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY, THE SHOOTER NEEDS TO GO TO SOME SORT OF REHABILITATION CAMP AND GET SOME EDUCATION.
Get real Sarah, this fool needs to be sent to Iran where they still hang people. This low life qualifies.
Perhaps you would like to "rehabilitate" and home school him.
I suggest a "rehabilitation camp" IN North Korea.
We need to build special prisons for the Ruben Jurados of the world. Ten to a cell, with oatmeal twice a day. Very economical.
No we need to get rid of guns in our society. That's the REAL root cause of these tragedies.
Getting rid of the guns is the worse thing. Then only the criminals would have guns. Are you so naive?
I'm not the "niave" one here zippy. I've heard or read your BS argument hundreds of time. Prove it!
So let me get this straight, bajadelmar, a retarded piece of mexcrement shoots someone, and you want law-abiding Americans to surrender their guns? No way! I began my campaign of responsible gun ownership for the Ruben Jurados of the world.
Hey thanks for re-establishing the fact that NRA supporters are some of the most bigoted in this country. Now try saying that out in public you POS.
So the smart guy thinks that criminals won't be able to get guns and terrorize all of the citizens without guns..........yeah, your not the brightest light bulb in the box i see.
I don't support the NRA, but i own a gun and will never give it up. That would be stupid.
Welll I have never owned a gun and nothing has ever happened to me in the last 55 years or to my family in last 100+ years. So where are all these criminals that you speak of "terrorizing our citizens"??? I've never heard of this happening, you must be living on a different planet than I am.
Remember NRA gun nuts, guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people. I don't know how you NRA backers can look at yourselves in the mirror with senseless tragedies like this happening in this country every single day.
So you believe if you take away all the guns from citizens the criminals will give their guns up as well? Don't be silly. Reading your posts are taking away my IQ points, please stop.
although this IS definitely a tragedy. But you are wrong when you do not see how much "sense" it actually makes.
This type of cowardly behavior is a TOTALLY predictable, and statistically reliable outcome that occurs when illiterate, welfare losers breed and infest a once prosperous state. Disrespectful is an understatement, these things have no idea what respect means. For their brothers and sisters, their parents or country. How can we expect them to respect us or our country? They are pure PARASITES.
Would you rather have him stabbed - the OJ way? How about acid? How about burnijng down his house or, perhaps,
a bomb? It's not about guns or any other weaponries. It's about values and education. It's about parenting.
Guns are supposed to be used to defend oneself, one's home, and one's family - a neutralizer for the weaker and law-abiding citizens.
Oh I know, to h*ll with everyone else! Nothing is more important to you imbeciles than having the false sense of security that a firearm provides.
Nothing false about the security of a firearm bajadelmar. Fact is you will never get honest citizens to give up their guns. Your argument is a waste of my time, and i am tired of losing IQ points reading your post. Have a good day.
@Mr Butters, @3:33:
Which everyone promptly ignores.