Robert Lewis McGhee Jr., a 50-year-old U.S. Park Ranger and Navy veteran, was shot and killed on May 26, 1990, in the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi. McGhee had served as a law enforcement ranger since 1981 and was described as a respected member of his community. He was performing a traffic stop after a vehicle ran a stop sign when one of the occupants opened fire, shooting McGhee multiple times in the throat and chest; he died at the scene.

The shooters were two escaped convicts from a Florida correctional facility, identified as Dempsey Alexander Bruner, 29, and John Fred Woolard, 27. The men had overpowered a guard at Holmes Correctional Institution, taken his .38 caliber revolver, and taken a female hostage who later escaped and alerted police. After the shooting, a manhunt led to the suspects being captured in Ocean Springs following a shootout in which one suspect was wounded; both were convicted of the murder of a federal police officer and received life sentences without parole.

Woolard later escaped from Parchman Prison in 2000 and was recaptured in Lowell, Indiana, after a multi-state crime spree. McGhee was survived by his wife, Linda, and their two children. Does anyone have information about Ranger McGhee’s final patrol or knew him personally that could add context to what happened that day?