SALON

Tuesday, Dec 27, 2011 8:09 AM UTC

Soldier Shot At Homecoming In Critical Condition

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A soldier who survived a suicide bombing attack in Afghanistan continues to fight for his life after he was critically wounded at his Southern California homecoming party.

Police on Monday arrested Ruben Ray Jurado after he turned himself in to authorities in Chino Hills, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles. The 19-year-old is suspected of shooting 22-year-old Christopher Sullivan at the party in San Bernardino on Friday night after getting into a fight with the soldier’s brother.

Sullivan remains in critical condition. Sullivan’s relatives say the Purple Heart recipient, which is awarded to those wounded in combat, was hit twice at the party by gunfire, which shattered his spine and left him paralyzed from the neck down.

“He’s still on the breathing machine,” the soldier’s brother Brandon Sullivan told the San Bernardino Sun. “He comes and goes and opens his eyes. If you talk to him, if you say something, he’ll blink his eyes.”

Authorities believe Jurado, who had played football with Sullivan in high school, began arguing with Sullivan’s 16-year-old brother Brandon over football teams and then punched him. Sullivan intervened and Jurado pulled a gun and fired multiple shots, hitting Sullivan in the neck, San Bernardino police Sgt. Gary Robertson said.

Jurado has been transferred to the custody of the San Bernardino Police Department where he was booked on suspicion of attempted murder. The district attorney’s office has until Wednesday to file charges.

Police said Jurado had an attorney but officials couldn’t immediately provide the lawyer’s name. It wasn’t immediately possible to locate a number for Jurado.

Sullivan was wounded in a suicide bombing attack last year in Kandahar province while serving with the 101st Infantry Division. He suffered a cracked collarbone and brain damage in the attack and had been recovering in Kentucky, where he is stationed.

The soldier’s mother, Suzanne Sullivan, told the paper she’s relieved that the man accused of shooting her son turned himself in.

“Now my son’s going to have justice,” she said.

More Noaki Schwartz.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
184 points185 points | 7 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
159 points160 points | 25 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
69 points70 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
111 points112 points | 45 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
43 points44 points | 4 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations