California police are searching for a man accused of shooting and paralyzing a U.S. Army member at a homecoming party in his honor.

Christopher Sullivan, 22, had just returned home to California from Kentucky where he was stationed while recovering from injuries sustained during a suicide bombing attack in December 2010 while he was in Afghanistan.

The San Bernadino County Sun reported that the Army specialist narrowly survived the attack which killed five members of his unit and left Sullivan with a cracked collar bone and brain damage. Sullivan was awarded the Purple Heart after the incident.

Sullivan was shot at the party in his honor on Friday after an “argument and physical confrontation” with 19-year-old Ruben Ray Jurado, said San Bernadino Police Department Sgt. Pete Higgins. He is wanted on charges of attempted murder, police said.

The fight broke out after Jurado and Sullivan’s younger brother began arguing about football, said his mother Suzanne Sullivan.

“[He] pulled out a gun and shot him twice,” she said.

Higgins said Jurado, 19, fled the scene right after the shooting. His whereabouts are unknown, but he is considered armed and dangerous, police said.

Sullivan was rushed to a hospital where he was being treated, officials said.

“Right now, my son is hanging in physically,” Suzanne said. “He’s on 100 percent life support. He can move his head and he responds through nodding and blinking to us. His eyes aren’t always open but we try to encourage him to do so as often as possible.”

She said her son tried to ask what happened to him at the hospital and when they told him he wanted to know “Why?”

“We told him what it was about and he just closed his eyes,” Suzanne said.

Suzanne said she was told the suspect and her son may have gone to school and played football together.

She said she couldn’t believe what had happened to her son, who she said joined the Army to try and help her out.

“He’s a wonderful son … the best person you could meet on this Earth,” she said. “He’s a giver, not a taker and just wants to be there for and help people. He was so happy when he joined the Army because he really wanted to defend his country.”

Sullivan and her family have been at her son’s bedside at a local hospital. A fellow soldier from Christopher’s 101st Airborne Division brought the infantry’s flag to the hospital, Suzanne said.

“He loved his platoon, he loved his fellow soldiers,” she said as she began to sob. “He was so proud to serve our country.”

Tears rolled down Christopher’s face when he saw the flag of the Screaming Eagles, the nicknamed for the division, his mother said.

“I asked Chris if he wanted to me to hang it on the wall or cover him in it,” Suzanne Sullivan said. “He nodded that he wanted me to cover him with it. Once I did that he started to cry, which made me start to cry. It’s been really hard on all of us.”

She said she was distraught over the news that her son, who was already recovering from injuries sustained during his tour abroad, had returned home only to be paralyzed during a party in the U.S.

“He once told me that if defending this country takes his life so be it,” she said. “But to see he survived that and now for this to happen to him, just breaks my heart.”

Suzanne said her family is having a difficult time coming to terms with what happened. They hope the Jurado will turn himself him.

“We just want justice to be done,” she said.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Det. Michele Mahan at 909-384-5619 or Sgt. Gary Robertson at 909-384-5663, or call WeTip anonymously at 800-78-CRIME.

— CNN’s Carey Bodenheimer and Janelle Griffin contributed to this report.