Fountain Valley : Slug to Stay in Shooting Victim’s Neck for Now

The bullet lodged in the neck of freeway shooting victim Paul Gary Nussbaum will not be removed soon because it poses no immediate threat, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

Nussbaum, a Rolling Hills Estate resident who is paralyzed from the neck to the waist, remained in “very critical condition” Friday, said Sheila Holliday spokeswoman for Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

Nussbaum was shot last Saturday in stop-and-go, merging traffic near the end of the Costa Mesa Freeway by the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Holliday said Nussbaum’s neurosurgeon, Dr. William Dobkin, has decided that it is too risky at this time to attempt to remove the bullet, which is lodged between the first and second vertebrae of the neck.

Although the bullet is next to the spinal cord, it is not applying pressure there, Holliday said.

The physician has determined that removing the bullet is unlikely to restore any functions to Nussbaum now, but it may be advisable to remove the slug at a later date, Holliday said.

Charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and firing into an inhabited vehicle were filed Wednesday against Albert Carroll Morgan, 32, a Santa Ana roofer, in connection with the shooting. Morgan was arrested in the fair parking lot, shortly after the incident.