A traffic stop in rural Missouri turned into a massive overnight manhunt involving roughly 150 law enforcement officers, ending only after a heavily armed suspect was located in thick woods and another deputy was killed during the effort to capture him.
According to the narrator of the Midwest Safety video, the incident began on Feb. 23, 2026, northwest of Branson, where 30-year-old Christian County Deputy Gabriel Ramirez was found dead after being shot while conducting a traffic stop. Ramirez, a U.S. Army veteran, was discovered by nearby residents as officers, sheriff’s deputies and Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers began flooding into the area.
What followed was a tense search across highways, back roads and wooded hills, with officers trying to find a suspect they believed was armed, dangerous and already willing to shoot police.
A Deputy Is Found Dead Beside The Road
Bodycam footage shows officers arriving near the scene and questioning people who had come across Ramirez.
One witness told an officer that he had simply pulled up, seen the deputy lying there and called 911. He said there were no other vehicles around when he arrived, while a woman later came running out with towels in an apparent attempt to help.
By then, investigators were already collecting information about a vehicle that had fled the area.
The suspect vehicle was described over police radio as a white 2001 Chevrolet pickup traveling south. Another officer immediately recognized the description, telling colleagues that he had seen the truck many times and that police had stopped it on Jan. 21.
That previous stop, the officer said, involved a man named Richard Bird.
Midwest Safety’s narrator identified Bird as a man already known to authorities for violence and said he had previously attempted to murder an officer. The channel also reported that Bird was out on a $50,000 bond connected to unrelated charges at the time.
The description of the truck became increasingly specific as officers compared notes: white Chevrolet, dirty exterior, rust or discoloration around the top and a darker covering over part of the vehicle.
With those details in hand, officers began spreading outward.
150 Officers Join A Nine-Hour Manhunt
According to Midwest Safety, around 150 officers representing local, state and federal agencies eventually took part in the search, including personnel from the FBI and U.S. Marshals.
The operation pushed south through rural Missouri, particularly around Highway 160, while teams checked side roads and considered whether Bird might abandon the pickup and disappear into the countryside.
That is eventually what happened.
The channel reported that troopers located Bird’s truck, after which officers began working with nearby residents to clear homes and properties while searching the surrounding terrain. The manhunt lasted roughly nine hours before a patrol aircraft finally spotted Bird in a densely wooded area along a ridgeline.
He was carrying a rifle.
From that point forward, the footage becomes far more chaotic. Officers on the ground were trying to move through unfamiliar wooded terrain while receiving updates from aircraft and drones above them, and radio traffic repeatedly warned that Bird was moving, taking cover behind trees and aiming the rifle toward approaching officers.
The geography made an already dangerous situation worse. Bird was higher on the ridge, concealed in vegetation and able to watch officers trying to move toward him.
Several officers recognized that problem immediately, warning each other not to advance farther without armored protection.
Gunfire Erupts In The Woods
The search suddenly became a rescue operation when shots were fired and officers began reporting deputies down.
Radio traffic captured one officer saying he had been shot in the right leg while another deputy was reported wounded in the stomach. At times, dispatchers and officers struggled simply to determine how many people had been hit and exactly where they were located.
One wounded deputy radioed that he was lying in a field and could not reach his tourniquet.
“I’ve been shot in the leg,” he told the others.
Officers began coordinating emergency medical crews while simultaneously trying to track Bird, who was still moving through the woods with the rifle.
The situation was especially difficult because rescuers could not simply run toward the wounded officers. Radio reports warned that Bird appeared to be watching one of the downed deputies, raising fears that he might be waiting to ambush anyone who tried to retrieve him.
That detail captures how dangerous the scene had become. Officers were dealing not only with an active rifle threat but also with the terrible pressure of hearing injured colleagues asking for help while knowing that any rescue attempt could expose more people to gunfire.
One officer said they should stop approaching until armored equipment arrived. Another requested a BearCat armored vehicle, while others asked for drones to remain over the suspect so they could keep track of his position.
Officers Crawl And Carry The Wounded To Safety
The footage shows deputies eventually moving in to retrieve at least one wounded officer as Bird remained close by.
Aircraft or drone observers continued giving updates, at one point saying the suspect was roughly 20 yards from officers and later warning that he had his rifle raised while walking toward their position.
Meanwhile, rescuers reached an injured deputy and began dragging and carrying him toward a vehicle.
“You’re good. We got you, brother,” one officer told him as several people worked together to get him inside.
The wounded man was lifted into a vehicle while officers performed a quick check for additional injuries and tried to get him toward a waiting ambulance as fast as possible. Police radio then raised the possibility that yet another deputy had been shot near a circular driveway farther up the hill.
Midwest Safety later identified two wounded deputies as Josh Wall and Austin McCall, both of whom survived the initial exchange of gunfire.
According to the channel, Trooper Henderson later wrote that the actions of Troopers Kenyon, Shicks, Kronister and others helped save the wounded deputies’ lives. Henderson himself was also cited for bravery in another report.
The rescue sequence is one of the most striking parts of the footage because it shows how quickly individual officers had to shift roles. In one moment they were searching for an armed fugitive; in the next, they were improvising evacuations, carrying wounded colleagues and trying to prevent additional casualties.
The Final Confrontation
Bird remained in the wooded area as officers tightened the perimeter.
Drone and aircraft crews repeatedly warned ground units that he was raising or aiming his rifle, sometimes toward officers positioned around nearby houses and patrol vehicles. Officers also had to constantly monitor their own lines of fire because teams had surrounded the area from several directions.
“Watch crossfire,” officers repeatedly warned over the radio.
At one point, Bird was reported lying prone but still moving. Later, officers said he had the rifle shouldered and appeared to be taking aim again.
The BearCat was eventually brought forward.
Radio traffic indicates that officers were extremely reluctant to approach without the armored vehicle because Bird remained in a strong position, partially concealed in a cedar thicket near the power line cut.
As the armored vehicle moved toward him, gunfire followed.
Moments later, officers reported that the suspect was down and that his weapon had been secured.
According to Midwest Safety, the police report from the BearCat driver stated that Richard Bird had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was dead.
But the victory came with another devastating loss.
Two Deputies Killed In The Same Manhunt
Midwest Safety reported that 40-year-old Christian County Deputy Michael Hislope was killed during the same exchange of gunfire that wounded Wall and McCall.
Hislope, like Ramirez, was a U.S. Army veteran. The video described him specifically as an Army Airborne veteran.
That meant the manhunt that began with officers searching for the person accused of killing Deputy Ramirez ended with a second Christian County deputy dead before Bird was finally stopped.
At a later memorial, Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole spoke about both fallen deputies.
Quoting scripture, Cole said, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race and I have kept the faith.”
He then addressed the two deputies directly.
“Mike, Gabe, you finished this race,” the sheriff said. “You’ve kept the faith.”
Cole told them they had protected Christian County “with every fiber” of their being before giving what he called their final orders: “Go home to the Lord. Find your rest in green pastures. We’ll take the watch from here.”
The footage closes with radio calls honoring the fallen men and fellow officers answering that they had the watch.
For all the tactical complexity of the nine-hour search — the helicopters, drones, armored vehicles and roughly 150 officers moving through rural Missouri — the story ultimately came down to a far more human cost. One deputy was killed during what began as a routine traffic stop, another died during the attempt to capture the suspected gunman, and two more officers were wounded before the manhunt finally ended.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
