David Sturdivant spent almost seven months in the Fulton County Jail before a prosecutor dropped charges that he pointed a rifle at three police officers. He left the jail with all his worldly belongings in a sack and an unhealed gunshot wound in his gut.
That's only the beginning of the problems for the 64-year-old former Marine who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam.
He lost a kidney and several inches of colon to the gunshot.
He is unable to walk without help after nearly dying during surgery last month.
His house burned down while he was in jail.
Thieves grabbed what the fire didn't destroy.
He owes thousands of dollars to the city for water that gushed from the broken pipes of the burned-out house, plus thousands more in other utility bills, taxes and fees.
Somebody has stolen thousands from his bank account, including veterans benefits and donations from people who had heard about his plight.
"When's the ... end to this?" said his friend, Bill Erquitt, who has tried to resolve Sturdivant's problems.
It all started April 8, when Sturdivant, tired of burglars striking the small-engine repair shop he ran on the first level of his home in northwest Atlanta, fired a shot at a would-be thief who was loading a riding lawn mower onto his truck. Hearing the shot from Sturdivant's M-14, Atlanta police officers -- who were nearby assisting the crew of a reality television show -- quickly appeared on the scene.
Police surrounded Sturdivant's house at Bolton Road and Collier Drive, but during all the commotion at the scene, Sturdivant was shot in the abdomen. He was arrested and taken to a hospital and later wound up in jail. A spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department said it has completed its internal review of how officers responded to the incident, but the findings cannot be released because they are now being reviewed by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.
Sturdivant was facing four counts of aggravated assault on a law officer that could have sent him to prison for up to 105 years. Those charges were dropped by prosecutors after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an account of his tribulations.
"He is the epitome of the quote ‘If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all,' " Erquitt said. "I would have given up. ... I know what the boy has been through."
Misfortune continued to follow Sturdivant after the shooting.
Fire destroyed his home in late May. Days later, thieves took his two antique Ford Thunderbirds, tools and electronics, plus the ham radio equipment that was in his deceased father's house a few yards away.
The property where Sturdivant has lived except for the years he was in the war is a muddy dump. Water has flowed from pipes damaged in the fire or broken when vandals took his hot water heater. Erquitt tried unsuccessfully for months to have the water service disconnected. Success only came in early October, after Erquitt had a friend, posing as one of Sturdivant's neighbors, complain to the city about the streaming water. Not before Sturdivant's water bill climbed to more than $11,500, though. That problem may be resolved if Erquitt and Sturdivant provide documentation of his time in jail and of the fire, a Water Department representative said.
"I haven't seen it yet," Sturdivant said of his former home. He is currently staying at a Buckhead nursing facility that mostly cares for veterans.
Sturdivant's bills for sewage and trash pickup have also continued to mount and now total almost $3,000.
A collection agency is also trying to recover $5,000 in property taxes for two adjacent lots after Sturdivant was sent two notices.
And someone wrote 22 checks on his now-closed bank account, taking about $6,000 from the deposits of his veterans benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder and contributions from people who heard about his troubles.
"People with good sense will make it right," said Erquitt, who now has legal authority to act on his friend's behalf.
In the meantime, Sturdivant must undergo physical therapy daily.
He blames the city, especially the APD, for everything, and he plans some day to seek "justice" in the court system.
But right now, "I have issues far more pressing, like getting out of here," Sturdivant said of the nursing facility.
Sturdivant insists his situation has not depressed him.
“I’m basically an upbeat person,” he said. “I can’t dwell on that. It’s a bottomless pit.”
But Erquitt and workers at the nursing facility tell a different story. They say Sturdivant has fallen into deep depressions and has gone days without eating or speaking. And when he does speak, his comments are acerbic.
"He is truly numb to it. He won't accept it," said Erquitt, a childhood friend and fellow Marine. "He's gone more and more into depression."
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