BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis announced Saturday that Deputy Cody Gooch has been released from Trident Hospital after being shot in the line of duty early Friday morning.
Gooch and two other deputies were dispatched Friday morning to a home on Pine Tree Drive in the St. Stephen area in reference to a "life threatening" domestic assault, according to the sheriff's office. Gooch and the other deputies located the suspect from the domestic incident nearby on Imperial Drive, and tried to get the suspect to stop the vehicle he was driving, the sheriff's office says.
The suspect did stop, but immediately opened the vehicle door, pulled a handgun and began firing at deputies, Sheriff Lewis said Friday. Deputy Gooch was shot, as was the suspect, but no one else was injured, according to the sheriff's office.
Gooch and the suspect, Calvin L. Middleton III, both were taken to Trident Hospital for treatment. Middleton remains hospitalized.
“Yesterday we witnessed some of the meanness that exists in society but we prevailed. Deputy Gooch was doing his job when someone tried to take his life, and we are ever so grateful and blessed that, although shot, (he) was not grievously injured," Sheriff Lewis said in a prepared statement Saturday. "The medical staff and Dr. John Smear (at Trident Hospital) were outstanding and very helpful. I cannot say enough about great they were and I sincerely appreciate their expertise and compassion."