George Stewart Maynard, a 34-year-old White/Caucasian male, was serving as a deputy sheriff with the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office when he was killed in Welch, West Virginia, on September 8, 1977. Maynard had prior law-enforcement experience with the Charlottesville, Virginia, Police Department and the West Virginia State Police before joining the McDowell County agency. What began as an investigation into a breaking and entering committed earlier that day turned deadly after Maynard and another deputy brought two suspects to the sheriff’s department for questioning.
Inside the department, the two suspects were separated. Maynard took one into the sheriff’s office and began advising the suspect of his rights, while the other deputy questioned the second suspect in an adjoining room. During that process, Maynard suddenly called out a warning that the suspect had a gun. Almost immediately, gunfire erupted. Maynard was shot and fatally wounded with a. 38-caliber handgun.
The other deputy, hearing the warning and shots, confronted the armed suspect and exchanged gunfire with him. During that exchange, the suspect was struck in the foot.
The wounded gunman was taken into custody a short time later. Although two suspects had originally been brought in for questioning regarding the break-in, the surviving online accounts focus almost entirely on the individual who produced the handgun and shot Maynard. They do not identify either suspect by name, nor do they provide a clear account of whether the second person was ultimately arrested, charged, released, or otherwise prosecuted. The gunman, however, was prosecuted for Maynard’s killing as well as the property crime that had led deputies to question the pair in the first place.
The case resulted in a conviction rather than remaining an unsolved line-of-duty homicide. On March 28, 1978, the gunman was convicted of second-degree murder and received a prison sentence of five to eighteen years for killing Maynard. He also received an additional sentence of one to ten years for breaking and entering. The available account does not specify whether those sentences were ordered to run consecutively or concurrently. No reliable online material located for the case provides the convicted killer’s name, additional biographical information, or a later history concerning parole, release, or subsequent offenses.
Maynard’s death left a family behind, including his wife, a child, two brothers, and three sisters. Decades later, he continues to be recognized as a McDowell County law-enforcement officer killed in the line of duty. The West Virginia Sheriffs’ Association includes Deputy George Maynard among the state’s fallen sheriffs and deputies, and a 2021 memorial service in Gary, West Virginia, specifically honored Maynard and another fallen local officer, remembering Maynard as an officer who was shot and killed while dealing with a prisoner in custody. His death remains documented as a gunfire-related line-of-duty fatality on September 8, 1977.
