DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — We’re happy to report DeSoto County K-9 Officer Brandon Hutchens is recovering nicely.
Hutchens was shot in the chest January 25 when he and another deputy confronted a suspect believed to be involved in a string of robberies.
Hutchens was in intensive care until recently and suffered a collapsed lung.
He has been with the department eight years.
His fiance posted on Facebook that Hutchens is now in a step-down unit and working hard to go home.
“He walked all the way out there and all the way back to his room. Please continue to pray for his recovery process.
Also I want to send a shoutout to all of the WONDERFUL nurses and Doctors we have had!! God is good!”
Sgt. Hunter Garrett was shot in the foot. and was released the day after the shooting.
Police say 54-year-old Kevin Darnell Washington was killed when he got into a gun
fight with the deputies.
Washington is suspected in three armed robberies Wednesday night and several others.
DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion said Washington’s armed crime spree started around 8 p.m.
He said Washington robbed a delivery driver in the Colonial Hills subdivision in Southaven.
After that he robbed someone outside of the McDonald’s in Horn Lake then made his way to the Horn Lake Home Depot where he robbed someone outside of the store.
Deputies spotted Washington outside of the Kroger off Stateline in Southaven around 9 p.m. Champion believes he was going to rob someone else. When two deputies attempted to arrest him he ran behind a church next to the grocery store and shots were fired.
Investigators think Washington is linked to the robbery and kidnapping of a man from Ardent Studios in midtown Memphis, less than a week ago because they believe he was driving the SUV he stole from the victim.
Washington had an active warrant from Florida at the time he was killed.
