Gwinnett Army Veteran Shot Last Month Has More Surgery

Updated 10:32 a.m., Jan. 29, 2012

The Suwanee man who was shot and wounded in his home in December -- allegedly by a former Army friend --  while playing video games has had a second surgery as the result of wounds suffered in the attack.

Carmon McCurrie fell and broke a bone in his right leg this month while attempting to walk at home, and surgery again was required, according to Rosemary Vollmar, his mother in law.

McCurrie, of a Grand Park Drive address in Suwanee, also had reconstructive surgery on his leg, nose and ear in December shortly after the shooting. and is being held without bond at the Gwinnett Detention Center.

The victim is again unable to walk and has to be fed and cared for. Those duties fall to his mother-in-law, his wife Amy, and his children (students at Peachtree Ridge High). Carmon McCurrie also has a daughter, 28 months. "(Carmon McCurrie) used to roll around on the floor with her," Rosemary Vollmar recalled Sunday. "He can't do that anymore."

Carmon McCurrie has been unable to work since the shooting. Insurance covers the surgical costs -- currently in excess of $50,000 -- but not prescriptions. The latest surgery, on Jan. 24, was to reattach a tendon and put a plate and screw in the bone that was shattered in the shooting.

Vollmar has set up a Facebook page to inform family and friends who are out of state about McCurrie's condition. (Warning: The Facebook page contains graphic images of the shooting victim.)

"We've got to keep Amy healthy," Vollmar said of her daughter. "She's under a lot of stress."

Amstutz faces a bond hearing in Gwinnett Superior Court in February. During an earlier court appearance, the accused shooter saw the victim, who had to use a walker in court. "The blood drained out of (Amstutz's) face," Vollmar said.

The motive for the shooting still escapes the victim and his family. Carmon McCurrie was playing video games about 10 p.m. in the living room of his home when the assailant fired from just outside the home, according to police. Doctors told McCurrie that the video-game headphones may have saved his life; a shotgun is believed to be the weapon.

Amstutz was apprehended the next day by police in North Carolina, and later was extradited to Gwinnett.

Vollmar had just moved to Suwanee from Texas about three weeks before the shooting. "Now we know why I was brought here," she said Sunday.