A Columbia County deputy was injured on Thanksgiving morning by a drunk driver who is well known to law enforcement.
Deputy John Boy Muldrow suffered a possible concussion when he was struck by a drunk driver’s Ford F250 around 9:30 a.m. Thursday on Old Evans Road at Harden Street, authorities said.
The DUI suspect was identified as Garrett Devore, 25, of Appling, who is being held without bond for two counts of serious injury by vehicle, DUI, driving while license suspended, failure to maintain lane and a seat belt violation.
Sheriff’s Maj. Steve Morris said the wreck involved three vehicles. Two people were transported to Augusta University Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, including Deputy Muldrow, who was off duty at the time, authorities said.
The Georgia State Patrol is working the DUI and the wreck, Maj. Morris said. The name of the other injured party was not released.
Devore has been arrested multiple times by the sheriff’s office, including a July 2022 charged for DUI and failure to maintain lane and a May 2021 arrest for possession of Schedule I drugs. He was also arrested in 2019 for operating a watercraft while under the influence. Five months ago, he accepted a plea on the drug charge that placed him on probation, according to online records. In that case, he was found with four fentanyl pills during a traffic stop.
Devore is brother of Bentley Devore, who was sentenced in February to 16 years in prison in the DUI fatal roadway crash that killed 20-year-old Morgan Shea in 2020. According to the indictment, Bentley Devore was driving under the influence when he crashed a modified golf cart on Morris Calloway Road. He and Shea were thrown from the vehicle.
In Burke County, Bentley Devore was charged with fleeing and criminal damage to property in July 2019. In that incident, Bentley Devore was driving a 2012 Ford F250 and towing a boat when a state trooper tried to pull him over for a traffic violation in Screven County. According to news reports, Devore fled from the officer, traveling at speeds up to 147 mph before he ran into a planted field of peanuts then fled on foot.
