The Little Rock Air Force Base gathered Friday morning for a memorial service for a 23-year-old airman who died trying to stop an armed robbery earlier this month.
Servicemembers overfilled the base’s chapel to honor Senior Airman Shawn Mckeough Jr., who was killed in the deadly March 15 robbery when police said two armed gunmen rushed into a North Little Rock gas station demanding cash from the register.
“Let today be a celebration of the kind of warrior spirit that defines us as Airmen and that ultimately guided Shawn’s last act of courage,” Col. Gerald Donohue, 19th Airlift Wing commander, said during the service. “He was relentless and determined, and he embodied our ideal of service before self, even to the end.”
Witnesses and police said Mckeough, a Westbrook, Maine native who was stationed at the air base, tried tackling one of the robbers before another fatally shot him.
Four teenagers, ages 16 to 18, face murder and robbery charges as adults following their arrests days after the robbery.
Mckeough previously served on bases in Germany, Kuwait and South Korea, receiving military honors before the Air Force assigned him to Little Rock.
His family wrote in his obituary that he was “looking forward to settling down in Arkansas” and starting a new life with his girlfriend of three years.
The couple was set to buy a house at the end of the month, they said.
Mckeough’s body was returned to Maine ahead of his funeral on Saturday.