Victim only visiting, deputies say

A city resident told police he was visiting a friend when he was shot last week in South Clovis, according to Curry County Undersheriff Roger Bowman.

Curry County deputies found Phillip Gee, 41, shot outside the mobile home of Larry Gomez, 45, on the 100 block of Mississippi on the evening of Aug. 1. Gomez was found inside the home bleeding from his stomach and taken to University Medical Center in Lubbock in critical condition;

The conditions of both men are slowly improving. A nursing supervisor at the University Medical Center in Lubbock said Saturday that Gomez’ condition has been upgraded from critical to satisfactory. Bowman said Gee, who is being treated at an undisclosed medical facility, improved to the point that he could speak with deputies Friday.

However, Bowman said Gee wasn’t able to provide much new information.

“Mr. Gee told us he was just going over to visit Mr. Gomez; they are friends and he wanted to go visit,” Bowman said. “Mr. Gee is now able to speak to us, but he didn’t get a look at the guy or anything. He walked into the house and this was going on.”

Bowman said Gee did confirm there was only one gunman.

Since none of the neighbors reported seeing the gunman, the key to solving the shooting may lie with Gomez, Bowman said.

“My gut feeling is Mr. Gomez probably knows who it was and we’d like to talk to him to find out,” said Bowman. “He’s improving but he’s still under sedation and on a ventilator.”

Bowman said Curry County deputies are frustrated by the lack of information available to date.

“It has been a few years since anybody has been maliciously shot and we didn’t know what happened,” Bowman said. “This does not happen very often. As far as I know all the cases we’ve had in the last three years have been solved.”