George Stewart Maynard was a 34-year-old deputy with the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office when he was shot and killed in Welch, West Virginia, on September 8, 1977. He had prior law-enforcement service with the Charlottesville, Virginia, Police Department and the West Virginia State Police before joining McDowell County. What began as an investigation into a break-in earlier that day ended after two suspects were brought to the sheriff’s department for questioning. Maynard was advising one suspect of his rights when he warned that the suspect had a gun; gunfire followed and Maynard was fatally wounded by a .38-caliber handgun. The armed suspect was wounded in the foot during an exchange with another deputy, taken into custody, and later prosecuted.

Maynard left a wife, a child, two brothers, and three sisters, and is still listed among West Virginia’s law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Does anyone have further details about the second person who was brought in that day or about the convicted shooter’s identity?