OXNARD : Investigator Healing After Gun Accident

Larry Fryar, an investigator for the Ventura County district attorney’s office, is recuperating at his Oxnard home after accidentally shooting himself in the groin last week.

Fryar, 44, was released from St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard on Christmas Day, six days after he wounded himself during routine firearms training at the county police and sheriff training facility in Camarillo.

“He’s still quite swollen,” said Braden B. McKinley, chief investigator for the district attorney’s office, who visited Fryar on Thursday. He said Fryar will soon begin physical therapy but said it was not clear when the investigator will return to work. “He’s anxious to get back,” McKinley said.

Fryar, a former Oxnard police officer who started his present job about three years ago, had been slated to receive the district attorney’s Outstanding Employee Award at an annual ceremony the day after his injury. Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury presented the award in Fryar’s hospital room instead.

Fryar was the agency’s primary investigator in the case of James T. (Tom) Ely, a former trustee of the Ventura County Community College District. Ely and his wife, Ingrid Ely, were convicted in August of stealing district funds.