On the morning of February 14, 2018, 63-year-old Robert Steven Steve McDowell was shot and killed at his home on Quarter Horse Trail in Walhalla, South Carolina. McDowell, a retired Duke Energy employee who had taken early retirement to care for his wife during her cancer treatment, confronted a male trespasser on the property. The intruder was 24-year-old Tyler Mark Broome, who had previously been warned to stay away from the McDowell residence and had been served a trespass notice months earlier.

McDowell held Broome at gunpoint while his wife called 911. Before deputies arrived an exchange of gunfire occurred; both McDowell and Broome were wounded and taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital. McDowell later died of his injuries and Broome was arrested and charged. In October 2019 Broome was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and pointing and presenting a firearm and received a 20-year sentence with a concurrent five-year term for the firearms conviction.

If anyone knew Robert McDowell or has information about the events that night, please share what you know.