Wichita Falls Crime Stoppers Needs Your Help To Solve a Cold Case – The 1998 Gun Shop Murders

On February 2, 1998, Wells Fargo Bank Vice President Hugh McDaniel went to visit his friend Leon Bragg at the gun shop Bragg owned on Galveston Street here in Wichita Falls. The pair would visit, drink coffee and swap stories as they had many, many times before.  They were friends and community leaders, well known and well respected. But that day, February 2, would not be like any other day for these men.

Sometime during the morning, presumably after 8am, someone entered the gun shop and bludgeoned both men to death. Over the years, many stories and rumors about the crime scene have leaked out from various sources. Police have investigated many leads.  No arrest has ever been made. No one, so far as the public is aware, has ever come forward with solid information. The families of these men continue to live with the questions: who did this and why?

Sixteen years have passed. The Wichita Falls Police Department has had four different men serve as chief since that day. The leadership torch of the Wichita County District Attorney’s Office has passed from then-DA Barry Macha to the current DA, Maureen Shelton. Detectives and officers from that day have no doubt retired or moved on. But the investigation has continued. Though the trail may be cold, the search for a killer or killers has not ceased. Wichita Falls Crime Stoppers has produced the re-enactment video above.

Please watch and share. Someone, somewhere has the answers that will at last give closure to the families and investigators who have never stopped asking who and why.