Courthouse Gunman Charged

A man captured on videotape repeatedly shooting at a lawyer cowering behind a tree has been charged with attempted murder.

William Strier, 64, of Thousand Oaks, also was charged Tuesday with criminally threatening a woman who was the court-appointed manager of his trust fund, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

According to police, Strier opened fire Friday on 53-year-old Gerald E. Curry, of Simi Valley, as the lawyer left a hearing involving his trust fund. Strier was being held on $2 million bail.

The drama was captured by television camera crews covering the murder case against actor Robert Blake. The footage was shown on TV stations around the world.

"A man walked up to me and said 'Are you Mr. Curry?' and I said, 'Yes, who are you?' and then he just shot me," Curry said Sunday. "I didn't even see the gun. I heard a pop and I knew I'd been shot because the blood spattered up in my face."

Curry was shot in the neck, both arms and left shoulder. Footage showed Curry hiding behind a tree as Strier fired a revolver at him from close range.

After the attack, Curry staggered from behind the tree, blood on his face, and held up his hands before collapsing.

Strier, having emptied his gun, walked off. Cameramen following him pointed to him to alert police. An off-duty sheriff's reserve officer tackled Strier, and other officers soon pounced on him, reports CBS News Correspondent Hattie Kaufman.

Curry, a father of twin 8-year-old girls, was released from the hospital Sunday and had surgery Monday to remove a bullet in his arm. Doctors decided to leave a bullet in his neck.

"Physically, I'm doing pretty good," Curry said Sunday.

Strier's civil attorney, Steven Trolard, has said his client injured three disks in his back last year in a car accident and won a $100,000 settlement, which was kept in a trust fund administered by a court-appointed trustee and attorney.

Strier's doctor recommended surgery to repair the disks, but the trustee, Evelyn Murphy, and Curry, who was Murphy's attorney, would not release the money, Trolard said Sunday in a telephone interview.

Curry claims that "when things weren't going the way (Strier) wanted them to, then he called (the trustee) up and threatened to kill her."

At a hearing just before Friday's shooting, Murphy was removed from the case, but not before she and Curry were authorized to withdraw more than $6,000 from Strier's trust for their work, Trolard said.

"It's weird. It's the kind of thing that always happens to someone else," Curry said Sunday. "This is the thing you see on TV, but this time it happened to me. But the main thing is that I survived, so I'm very grateful."