Carjacking Victim ‘Feels Lucky to Be Alive’ : Crime: College student is shot twice in the head in Anaheim as he attempts to comply with a gunman’s demand that he give up vehicle. A suspect is in custody.

As her 19-year-old son lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery Friday, a shaken LuAnn Schlick tried to make sense of the attempted carjacking that nearly cost the college freshman his life.

Timothy Schlick of Long Beach, a catcher on the Cypress College baseball team, was shot twice in the head Thursday afternoon as he sat in his car waiting for his girlfriend to finish work at a law office in the 1700 block of West Ball Road.

“He’s a good kid,” said a tearful LuAnn Schlick, 56, during a press conference at UCI Medical Center in Orange. “It’s a crime that a person can’t even sit in their car without the fear of being shot.”

About an hour after the 4:41 p.m. attack, police arrested 20-year-old Harold E. Harris of Santa Ana, whom Schlick said her son positively identified as the gunman from a photo lineup at the hospital Friday.

Harris, who boarded an OCTD bus after the shooting, was spotted getting off the bus by a police officer and arrested in his room at a Santa Ana motel where he had been staying for a few days, said Anaheim Police Detective Guy Reneau.

Witnesses to the shooting apparently recognized Harris and told police his name and where he was staying. Reneau refused to say how the witnesses knew Harris, who was being held at the Anaheim Jail on suspicion of attempted murder.

Harris, whose bail was set at $250,000, is expected to be arraigned Monday at North Municipal Court in Fullerton.

LuAnn Schlick said her son gave her a detailed account of the attack, during which a bullet pierced his left cheek and lodged in the side of his head. Doctors cannot remove the bullet because it is next to a major artery. A second bullet grazed the back of his head, she said.

“He said the man walked up to him and told him to get out of the car, and when Tim turned toward the door to get out, he was shot,” she said. “He said his face felt hot after he got shot and he felt like his teeth were coming out. He noticed that the guy was still standing over him with the gun, so Tim busted out and ran to the office where his girlfriend was. When he did that, he said, the guy took off and ran in the other direction.”

Timothy Schlick’s girlfriend, 23-year-old Cynthia Sigala, said that Schlick does not usually pick her up from work but was driving her 1988 white Ford Mustang that day because the two had been running errands together earlier in the day.

Sigala, who works as a legal assistant at Barker Management Inc., said that she heard her boyfriend drive up to the building moments before the attack and spoke to him briefly.

“I told him I wouldn’t be off work for a while and that he should get something to eat,” she said. “Then, a little while later, I heard a shot but thought it was a car backfiring. Then he was at the door, and he mumbled: ‘I’ve been shot, and they’re going to take your car.’ He had blood all over him.”

LuAnn Schlick said: “The ironic thing is he told his friends the day before this happened that if a carjacking happened to him, he would give up the car. But he didn’t even get the chance.”

In addition, after Thursday’s attack, someone broke into Timothy Schlick’s 1987 Mustang, which had been parked at a friend’s house, and stole his stereo speakers and baseball equipment.

“He’s had it pretty rough,” LuAnn Schlick said. “But he’s a terrific kid. His attitude is good, and he feels really lucky to be alive.”

A fund has been established to help the family with expenses. Donations can be sent to: Farmers & Merchants Bank, 302 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90802. Donations need to be designated for Timothy J. Schlick and family.

Times staff writer Eric Young contributed to this story.