Rancho S.D.

An investigation into the shooting of a 46-year-old man found Sunday in Rancho San Diego is focusing on the possibility that he shot himself, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said Tuesday.

James Fellerman, a San Diego resident who was shot twice in the lower chest, spent Saturday night under the old California 94 bridge over the Sweetwater River before crawling to a nearby brush area, where he was spotted by a passerby who summoned authorities. Fellerman’s car was found parked at a fast-food restaurant a short distance from the bridge.

Detectives from the Lemon Grove sheriff’s station on Monday recovered a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Although he said he had been “assaulted and robbed,” the recovery of the gun at the scene has left Fellerman a prime suspect in his own shooting, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Glenn Revell. “It’s highly unusual that someone assaults an individual and then leaves the weapon at the scene of the crime,” he said.

Revell would not speculate on why Fellerman might have shot himself.

Fellerman was taken by Life Flight helicopter to Mercy Hospital, where his condition was upgraded Tuesday from serious to fair, hospital spokeswoman Debbie Seitz said.