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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more guns please!
This is a general statement here...but 'birds of a feather' man.
Watch the company you keep ... and the crowd you bring.
What's more dangerous? Afghanistan or the USA in some neighborhoods? Tough call.
My thoughts and prayers go out to this soldier and his family. I do believe in miracles and I pray that some or all of his paralysis is temporary.
Prayers are a nice gesture...financial help would be better, since neither God nor prayers can help this young man. In this holiday season, what misfortune for him...but hey, God works in mysterious ways right?
Non believers never see the hope.
Jurado deserves nothing less than the death penalty. I sincerely hope he loses his life in a shoot out when he is captured. What he did to Sullivan is beyond heartless and cruel. Jurado does not deserve to live life behind bars. I hope police catch him swiftly before he tries to flee to Mexico.
The perp needs to turn himself in. And I gotta wonder, when will people start asking their guests "are you packing" You can't come in the house if you're packing a gun. Period.
We have two or three parties during the summer. We shoot bows, clay pigeons and throw tomahawks. Most bring their own gun or bow. We have been doing it for the last 20 years without an incident. It must be a difference in the people, we live in western PA.
You Americans and your guns! up here when we have an argument we take it outside and settle it because we have no guns.Sometimes a punk will have a knife or swing a hockey stick but no one gets paralyzed usually. Sure there are exceptions but you yanks have so many handguns. Oh yes we have legal shotguns and rifles as we hunt but our youth don't carry handguns around like cell phones. It's just so wrong. The majority must demand laws be changed or the great Americs is screwed! mexicans have nothing to do with this problem.
Well said, Larry.
So the only people with guns will be the criminals?
Don't let a small, negative sample that you hear about on the news define how you view america. The majority of Americans do not act this way or carry a weapon everywhere. This was a thug. Thugs can be found in every country in the world.
If by "up here" your referring to Canada. You already seem to have an extreme stereotype about your southern neighbors. The fact is that the majority of us are not carrying guns around on a daily basis. There is no real need too.
It's tragic these kind of things happen... and amazing to see what ignorance and stupidity could lead to someone shooting another person over an argument about football. Of course in Europe and other places people get trampled to death or killed at soccer matches or fights between fans.
Maybe its time for people to grow up and realize these are just games... and that losing is often part of the game.
You're a moron. Stay in Canada. When we decide we need more room, we will overrun your pathetic country.
Hear, hear – many of us in the U.S. also think gun laws here are assinine. Yes, I know, it is legal – but, how many people can you kill with knife or fists as opposed to a gun? Why, why, why is this so hard to understand?
I'm 99.999999999% certain that a 19 year old who shoots someone over an argument about football is not carrying a gun legally and would therefore not be negatively effected by any law about guns.
Larry, many thousands carry everyday in the US without incident. It's the whole freedom thing we enjoy here. I'm glad you do not have the whole freedom problem up there.
Just keep in mind, it's highly unlikely that Jurado had a license for the gun he was carrying around. We do have laws to limit people carrying around weapons in public, and just because there are always the few who break the laws doesn't mean everyone does. There are criminals in Canada just like there are in the US. It's not a matter of what country you live in, it's about the people. Criminals don't care if they kill someone in Canada, the US, or on the moon. Be careful to stereotype entire nations based on the actions of a few
You are a complete IDIOT Larry.
But why can't an argument specially about football stay verbal? Why should it even be taken outside? It should've never gotten so serious to even start a fight. The shooter went ways beyond over board with it.
If Canadians north of the border are perplexed by America's defence of the second amendment that's understandable. As a Canadian who lives in the US it is no less comprehenseable. It is actually a bit scary. I know many Americans who envy Canada for our civility. They wish that hand guns were not so pervasive. Alas, I fear it is an irreversable situation. Too many Amedicans will do anything to protect their right to carry a 9mm even if it kills them... or their children.
@Joe, you are congratulating someone who gets enjoyment out of messing with people? What a small pathetic life some people lead! Wonder if trolls and their groupies are the bullies or the ones who were bullied? Regardless small lives for small minds.
Jurado is protected by the "ruling class" in this country.
My prayers are for Christopher Sullivan and his family for a full recovery.
For all of you idiots out there making this seem out to be a "racial thing"...........just stop.
This guy, thousands of men and woman, serving our country are of non-white descent. That makes them no more and no less than any white person in the US.
Some of you forget that most of the hispanics living in the US have history that goes back many generations in this country. Many of who had family that can be traced in taking part in every single major war America has been in.
So the Mexican has a big welcome home party full of other Mexicans wearing red or blue sports clothing many sizes too large and Mexican women wearing next to nothing. At some point in the evening, amidst the loud "rap" and alcohol haze, "some fool bust a move," and one Mexican shot another. That's the reality.
The fantasy is that this was some wholesome party to welcome home an American hero and somehow someone was able to sneek in an evil firearm. Race was irrelevant, of course, as the wine and cheese table was suddenly overturned. Now Beethoven was punctuated by gun fire! Our brave soldier had fallen. Oh, the irony! How? Why? No one knows. It just doesn't make any sense. Anyone for whom it does make sense is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist!
Don't feed the racist troll.
raaaaaaaaaaaaacist!
Is there anything this young man needs, or a donation site....
I would like to help
I really feel for this family. That being said check on this guy and his family in five years and see how they treat disabled soldiers when the public isn't looking anymore. The U.S. military refuses to take care of their own after they are medically retired. They put on a good front but it is a total facade.
Our culture is a more violent one, and although I have no racists tendencies whatsoever, it cannot be denied that the popular Hispanic gang culture among young people in the inner cities is the most violent subculture in our country. I my city of New York, 95 percent of the hundreds of murders annually are the results of gang violence. It's that culture that needs to change for the benefit of Hispanics and Americans in general, not the gun laws. Hispanic gang culture is multi generational.