Late Tuesday night a Calvert County jury handed down its verdict in the state’s case against Brandon Alexander Turner, finding the 22-year-old Greenbelt man guilty of attempted murder in a late 2022 shooting incident in which a Calvert sheriff’s deputy was critically wounded.
While Turner was acquitted of attempting to kill two other deputies, he was convicted on two counts of first-degree assault in addition to the attempted murder charge.
Late Tuesday afternoon a Calvert County jury heard closing arguments in the state’s case against Turner.
The barrage of gunfire in the Walnut Creek subdivision of Huntingtown during the early evening hours of Dec. 17, 2022, followed a high-speed chase on Route 4 after Turner allegedly fled a traffic stop in Dunkirk.
It is alleged that Turner fired several shots at the pursuing deputies during the chase. The attempt to outrun the officers ended when Deputy James Flynt maneuvered his patrol vehicle and stopped the Kia Turner was driving, employing a precision immobilization technique. After the Kia hit a guardrail, Flynt got out of his vehicle and drew his weapon.
During testimony last week, Flynt recalled being shot.
“The defendant’s choices were the driving cause,” Calvert County Deputy State’s Attorney Timothy J. Maher told the jury. “He had a car full of ammunition, an illegal gun and drugs before he drove into Calvert County. He gambled and he lost.”
During the trial, defense attorney Michelle Harewood affirmed that the traffic stop involving Turner was “unfounded” and her client “was being profiled.”
There was a female passenger in Turner’s vehicle that night.
Harewood stated that Deputy Tyler Bowen stopped the Kia near Yellow Bank Road when he saw “two people of color” in the vehicle.
She told the jury, “just because they carry a gun and wear a badge you don’t have to believe them.”
Harewood also said there was was so much shooting when the chase ended that “we don’t know who shot Deputy Flynt.”
One of the two shots Flynt sustained hit his femoral artery. The gunshot wound is similar to the one that led to the death of pro football star Sean Taylor in 2007.
Flynt testified last week that after shouting he had been shot, he self-applied a tourniquet to his wound, requested an ambulance and passed out. The deputy lost a lot of blood and was rushed to Calvert Health Medical Center. He was later transported to Washington Hospital Center. He was released three weeks later.
While he has returned to duty, Flynt’s law enforcement activities are limited. He stated during his testimony that he can’t run and is still recovering from the injury’s effects.
In response to Harewood’s contention that there was no point to the stop Bowen initiated, Calvert County State’s Attorney Robert H. Harvey Jr. (R) said, “When things go wrong it’s pretty easy to blame other people. Deputy Bowen did nothing wrong that night. All the deputies were doing their jobs. The defendant has to own his actions that night.”
Turner declined to testify during the trial. After the prosecution took four days present testimony from law enforcement, weapons experts and physicians, the defense only called one witness before resting its case Tuesday morning.
A sentencing date is pending. The case was presided over by Judge Andrew Rappaport.
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