A 23-year-old senior airman stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas was fatally shot Friday while trying to stop an armed robbery.
Shawn Mckeough Jr., who served in Germany, Kuwait, and South Korea, was shot at the Valero Big Red convenience store in North Little Rock on Friday around 11 p.m. when he attempted to stop two people who barged in with handguns, police said. The two armed individuals then left the store without taking any money.
Those close to Mckeough believe he took the bullet to protect others from harm.
Sarah Terrano, Mckeough’s girlfriend, was waiting in the car as Mckeough and two others entered the store. After she heard the gunshot, she rushed inside to find her boyfriend dead. “I really think he tried to get the robbers’ attention so that no one else would get hurt,” Terrano told the Portland Press Herald. “That’s just who he was.”
“It was typical of Shawn to come to someone’s defense,” his mother Lisa Marie Hebert said. “That’s who he was.”
North Little Rock Police announced Monday one of the suspects is 18-year-old Drequan Lamont Robinson, who has active warrants for capital murder and aggravated robbery. Police have yet to identify a second suspect involved in the incident but released surveillance footage of the two armed subjects entering the store and are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest is on the table.
“They promised to get them,” Terrano said of police. “I want those two people to sit in jail the rest of their lives. I want them to think about this every day.”
Mckeough joined the Air Force after he graduated high school in 2014. He was stationed in Arkansas starting in December, where he served as an aerial delivery operations specialist for the 19th Airlift Wing.
“We are heartbroken to have lost a valued member of our Team Little Rock family.” Col. Gerald Donohue, the unit’s commander, said in a statement. “Shawn’s death will be felt by each of us, and we are committed to supporting his loved ones and fellow Airmen during this very difficult time.”
Mckeough’s body is expected to be taken to his hometown of Westbrook, Maine, later this week by military escort. A funeral service will occur as soon as this weekend.
