Coby Ward, a 28-year-old man from Sallisaw, Oklahoma, was shot late on April 17, 2026, inside Boogie’s Texas Bar & Grill on South Wilcox Street in Rockdale, Texas. What began as a night at a local bar turned into a fatal shooting just before midnight, when Rockdale police received multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire. Officers arrived and found Ward inside the bar suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to Baylor Scott & White Hospital in critical condition, but he did not survive. Authorities later reported that he died from his injuries on April 20, 2026.
Investigators said witness accounts and video evidence quickly pointed them toward Raymond James McBride Jr. of Rockdale as the sole suspect in the shooting. McBride was first arrested on April 18 on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, while Ward was still hospitalized. He bonded out on that initial charge. After Ward died, the case escalated from an assault investigation to a homicide case, and Rockdale police obtained a new warrant charging McBride with murder, a first-degree felony.
McBride surrendered to the Milam County Jail without incident on April 20 after the murder warrant was issued. The investigation involved the Rockdale Police Department, with assistance from the Milam County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Police publicly described McBride as the only suspect identified through the evidence available at that stage of the investigation.
After the murder charge was filed, McBride was initially able to post a $750,000 bond and was released from jail. Days later, the Milam County District Attorney’s Office moved to have his bail revoked, citing a Texas constitutional provision that allows prosecutors to seek detention without bond in certain violent-offense cases when release is argued to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety or law enforcement. At a hearing before District Judge John Youngblood, prosecutors argued for revocation, and the judge granted the request.
Following that ruling, McBride was taken back into custody by the Milam County Sheriff’s Office and ordered held without bond while awaiting trial. Online reports available after the hearing did not show that a trial had taken place or that McBride had been convicted. The case remained pending, with McBride facing a first-degree murder charge in Ward’s death.
