The Calvert County, Maryland, sheriff’s deputy who was wounded in a shootout with a suspect Saturday in Huntingtown is making progress, and “his prognosis has greatly improved,” the Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
Master Deputy James Flynt had been in critical condition, Sheriff-elect Ricky Cox said in a statement Monday, but “we are ecstatic to be able to say his condition has improved and currently he can be described as stable.”
Flynt has been alert and able to communicate, Cox said, and was set to undergo more surgery Monday.
He’s still expected to be in intensive care for an extended time.
“While he still has a long road to recovery, his prognosis has greatly improved in the last 24 hours,” Cox said. “Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.”
Flynt was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Brandon Turner, 21, of Greenbelt, after a chase that began with an attempted traffic stop near Yellow Bank Road in Dunkirk, authorities said.
Turner allegedly drove off from the traffic stop, heading south on Route 4 and firing at deputies who were chasing him.
The chase ended on Walnut Creek Road in Huntingtown, the Sheriff’s Office said. When they stopped Turner’s car, he and his passenger ran off. That’s when Flynt was shot, they said, adding that Turner was shot when other deputies returned fire.
Turner was arrested at the entrance to the Walnut Creek subdivision. He’s facing charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault of a law enforcement officer.
The Sheriff’s Office is handling the investigation themselves. They contacted the attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division, which generally respond to police shootings. But it declined because it no longer handles incidents that do not, or are not likely to, result in the death of the suspect, a division spokesman said.
