Crime & Safety

Man Accused of Shooting Army Buddy in Suwanee

Fugitive is a Gwinnett resident who is now in custody in North Carolina.

Updated 2:30 p.m., Dec. 21, 2011

A Lawrenceville man charged with shooting a former Army buddy last week in Suwanee is in custody in North Carolina.

Timothy Franklin Amstutz is being held in the Surry County (N.C.) Jail on a fugitive from justice charge and has waived extradition, according to a published report. The shooting happened on Grand Park Drive in Suwanee last Thursday, according to Suwanee Police.

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The wounded man, Carmen McCurrie, is back home after having reconstructive surgery on his face, according to Rosemary Vollmar, his mother in law.

"We don't know why" the shooting occurred, Vollmar said Tuesday.

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Vollmar, who moved to Suwanee about three weeks ago, spoke at Tuesday's City Council meeting, and told council members that police actions at the shooting scene were "very professional."

She noted that Carmen McCurrie and Timothy Amstutz were together in the Army. Carmen McCurrie served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq; Amstutz served stateside.

Amstutz was taken into custody by Surry County Sheriff’s deputies after they spotted his vehicle on I-77 around 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to the Mount Airy, N.C., News.

The wounded man was "holding his head and covered with blood" when police responded to the incident, records show. The assailant was not on the scene at the time, police said. Carmen McCurrie was shot in his living room while playing video games; the assailant shot from outside while driving by.

Carmen McCurrie's wife, Amy McCurrie, told police that her husband had been involved in a dispute with "family friends" Timothy and Carletta Amstutz. The Amstutz couple had come to their house about three weeks before the incident and engaged in a verbal argument, according to police records.

Of the argument, Amy McCurrie heard Carletta Amstutz tell Carmen McCurrie "you better watch who you are talking to. I'm crazier than you are," according to police records.

Amy McCurrie also told police that the Amstutzes have multiple firearms in their house and that Carletta Amstutz has a history of serious mental illness.

According to the newspaper report, after Timothy Amstutz was taken into custody, the sheriff’s office searched the car and found a shotgun along with a 9mm pistol and a .22-caliber pistol. Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson said there was also a spent shotgun shell casing in the floor of the car, however he was unsure whether the shell had been used in the shooting or if Timothy Amstutz had shot at something else later.

Doctors told Carmen McCurrie that the video-game headphones he was wearing helped him survive the shooting.


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