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Paso Robles shooting victim recovering after brain surgery, family says

Justin Bice.jpg
Posted at 4:56 PM, Sep 28, 2021
and last updated 2021-09-28 22:41:30-04

The victim of a shooting in Paso Robles over the weekend is recovering in the hospital after undergoing surgery, according to his family.

The shooting happened in the 1000 block of Dorothy Court, not far from Centennial Park, just before 1 p.m. on Sunday.

"He's one of the kindest individuals I know," said the victim's older brother, Jeremy Adams. "He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He just does his own thing, works and plays video games."

According to his family, Paso Robles native Justin Bice, 29, is recovering after being shot in the head on Sunday afternoon.

"The ambulance pulled up and I saw them taking him out of the back on a stretcher and I saw that he was awake and he was looking around so… I cannot describe how relieved I felt at that moment," Adams explained.

Adams says that his brother underwent surgery.

"Surgery went well. They didn't find any bullet fragments in the brain. They did have to do brain surgery to remove skull fragments from his brain, however," Adams said.

The family says Bice is now awake and breathing on his own but he will lose his left eye due to damage on the left side of his brain. They say he can talk but his short-term memory seems to be affected.

"It's probably too soon to tell just the extent of the damage or how good he actually is doing," Adams said.

The victim's family says Bice has a full-time job at a local window company. They've set up a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses.

Meanwhile, police say the suspect, Carlos Chavez, 20, of Paso Robles was located in San Miguel and taken to jail.

Carlos Chavez background 2021.jpg
Carlos Chavez

"He was booked on attempted murder and felon in possession of a firearm," said Cmdr. Caleb Davis, Paso Robles Police Department.

The Atascadero Police Department has also connected Chavez to multiple armed robberies in that city just hours before the shooting on Sunday.

Adams says he was told by police that there was some sort of incident involving someone outside of their family when his brother stepped in. This led to a physical altercation and ended with him getting shot.

Police say the victim and the suspect knew each other.

They add that officers have had some minimal contacts with Chavez in the past.