By Staff Reports
Local authorities joined a regional manhunt over the weekend after a Carroll County sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot while conducting a welfare check at a home on Fancy Gap Highway.
The incident occurred around 9:26 p.m. on Friday, May 29.
Authorities said the alleged shooter, identified as Michael Timothy Puckett, 55, opened fire on responding deputies. Deputies returned fire, and both were struck by gunfire. One deputy, Logan Utt of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead. A second deputy was struck in his ballistic vest and was reported in stable condition. The deputy has not been publicly identified.
Authorities said Puckett fled the scene.
Law enforcement agencies from across the region, along with their counterparts in North Carolina and other agencies, including the Virginia State Police, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, and the FBI, participated in a coordinated search that continued until Puckett was apprehended on Sunday.
Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith said Patrick deputies, along with officers from more than 20 law enforcement agencies, were involved in the manhunt for Puckett.
“The entire law enforcement division of my office was involved in the manhunt on both days,” he said.
Smith said Puckett was captured about a quarter-mile south of the Virginia-North Carolina state line, after an investigator with N.C. State Bureau of Investigations observed Puckett ringing a doorbell at a residence just south of the state line.
The sheriff added that Puckett offered no resistance and was arrested without incident.
No members of the Patrick County Sheriff’s Office were injured during the operation.
A firearm was recovered. Puckett was booked into the Surry County Jail, awaiting extradition back to Carroll County.
Smith said Puckett had longstanding ties to Patrick County.
“We’d been through this type of manhunt for him before over explosive charges 11 years ago,” Smith said.
Court records show Puckett pleaded no contest in 2016 to seven counts of possessing explosives and one count each of possessing a sawed-off firearm and altering a firearm serial number.
Puckett also has three active cases pending in Patrick County, according to court records. He is charged with the manufacture or possession of a fire bomb and possession of explosives by a felon. Both cases were initiated on March 3, 2025.
A third charge, arson of personal property, stems from an indictment returned Jan. 3, 2024, according to court records.
