Replaying Shooting For Justice

This December, civil attorney Gerald Curry will have to once more face William Strier, the man accused of shooting him five times at close range outside the Van Nuys courthouse. And Curry says he is ready.

"Yes. In fact, I testified at the preliminary hearing in July three months ago. So I testified once already," Curry tells The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "He was in a gurney and on the other side of the courtroom, so I just saw him five minutes or so when I testified."

Incredibly the shooting was caught on tape by camera crews at the court. "I've seen it so many times now, it doesn't have a big impact," Curry says. "But when I do see it, of course, I'm grateful I was able to survive and make it through."

Though Curry had never met Strier prior to that day, Curry says, "The connection is that this was a trust case."

Strier was the beneficiary of a court authorized trust. Curry's client was the professional trustee who administered the trust for Strier and his sister's benefit. On that Friday, Oct. 31, there was a hearing for Curry and the professional trustee to ask the court to approve their fees for the work on this case.

"The court has to approve any fees for both my client and myself. Apparently they didn't want to pay the fees. I assume that's what the motivation was," Curry says.

It happened on Halloween 2003 when Curry was attacked outside of a Los Angeles court.

"I came out of court and I was turning down to walk to my car and I had never seen him before," he says. "A man walked up and said, 'Are you Mr. Curry?' And I said, 'Yes, who are you?' Then I remember hearing a loud bang or pop and I reacted instinctively. I turned and went to the ground to try to scramble away. Then I got up and ran, and ran behind the tree. That's when the camera picked up the video shot. I was behind the tree. It was probably a period of about 10 seconds where I could see him approaching me with a gun outstretched trying to shoot me. I was using the tree to protect my head and torso."

Curry was shot in the neck, then once in the right forearm, and three times in the right shoulder.

"The first shot lodged in the spinal column next to my neck," Curry says. "When he got me behind the tree he hit me in this forearm and also got me on the right shoulder. Three went in and out on my shoulder."

It wasn't until 15 minutes later, when Curry was being put into the ambulance, that he says he felt pain. The bullet in the forearm actually caused some muscle and tendon damage that required surgery a day after the shooting and further therapy. Today the hand is fine.

As for the bullet in the neck, it lodged by his spine so doctors felt it was too tricky to remove the bullet right away, it remained for two months when it was taken out. His doctor told him that if the bullet in his neck had been half an inch over he would have bled to death. It took him six weeks to recover.

Today, there are no bullets in his body and Curry is in good health.