Convicted cop killer accused of taunting officer’s family after move from maximum-security prison
BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. - A convicted cop killer is back behind bars in a state maximum security prison after a Georgia sheriff protested the department of corrections moving him to a medium security facility from which he was accused of taunting the officer’s family on social media.
Capt. Robbie Bishop was killed in his patrol car on Interstate 20 back in 1999.
He is legendary in Georgia law enforcement, so when it was learned his family was being taunted by his killer, Jeffrey McGee, from behind the bars, there was outrage.
Capt. Robbies Bishop with a trailer of seized drugs from a photo released at the time of his death in 1999
One of those outraged lawmen was Butt’s County Sheriff Gary Long, whose Friday night social media rant was shared thousands of times and caught the attention of Gov. Brian Kemp this past weekend.
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Sheriff Long says the family of Capt. Robbie Bishop contacted him saying the state had recently moved McGee from a maximum security prison where he was serving a life term for Bishop's murder to a medium security facility, where he was posting pictures of himself online from behind bars and taunting the officer's family.
Butts County Sheriff Gary Long
"Of course, I encouraged people to contact their state representatives, state senators and the governor’s office," Long said.
Long says the prison officials told him and the Bishop family that they searched McGee’s cells and found a mobile phone, but said it belonged to his cellmate and no disciplinary action would be taken.
Sheriff’s Long’s Facebook post critical of the move and the treatment of the Bishop family caught the attention of both the Georgia Department of Corrections and Governor Kemp. This past weekend, the state moved McGee back to maximum security.
The governor’s office issued the following statement to FOX 5:
"Governor Kemp and his family do not take lightly the sacrifice that our men and women in law enforcement and their families make when they pledge to serve their fellow citizens. In this instance when our office was made aware of the concerns, we reached out to the Department of Corrections to ensure the situation was being handled appropriately. It was, and the inmate has now been moved as you mentioned."
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Robbie Bishop specialized in highway interdiction and was credited with large seizures of drugs and money from cars traveling Atlanta highways. Long says Bishop’s methods are still in use by law enforcement all over the country and are what he used as a road deputy in his own career.
A photo of Long after a traffic stop that resulted in the seizure of drugs in a hidden compartment
"Robbie was the guy. He was the professor of law enforcement, and unfortunately he paid the ultimate sacrifice on January 20, 1999," Long said.
McGee was convicted and sentenced to life in prison after his arrest in Canada. His name appeared in Bishop’s citation book as the last warning ticket written that day.
Long wants a state law making it mandatory to keep cop killers locked up in the state’s highest security prisons.
He also says the state should also do more to clear Georgia prisons of contraband cell phones that can be used to further victimize families.