Randy Rumler, a two-decade veteran of the Michigan Department of Corrections, died on July 6, 2020, after battling with COVID-19, the MDOC's Honor Guard announced.
According to the honor guard, Rumler worked his entire 24-year career at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian. In recent years he worked in food service at the facility.
Inmates and loved ones connected to the Harrison facility have expressed concerns that the department introduced COVID-19 to the facility by using it as a "step-down" unit for people who had earlier tested positive for the virus but didn't currently have it, and weren't yet ready to return to their home facility.
Rumler was one of 383 staffers to catch the virus, including 31 others at Gus Harrison, and he is the third to die after contracting it.