Bio

Ernest Moore lived in the Harlingen and San Benito area of Cameron County, Texas. He was 25 years old at the time of the July 1998 killings. His family was known in local law enforcement, his father was reported as a Harlingen police officer or detective, and his brother was also reported to be a police officer in the area.

Before the shootings, Moore had reportedly been in a relationship with a woman who was later identified in news accounts as the former girlfriend he was looking for on the morning of the attack. Reports stated that the violence appeared to begin as a jealous confrontation involving that former girlfriend, who was staying at a Rio Hondo home. She was inside the home during the first shooting but was not injured.

Murder Story

On the morning of July 7, 1998, police in Rio Hondo, a community near Harlingen in Cameron County, Texas, received a 911 call reporting gunfire at a home at about 5:30 a.m. When an officer arrived, he found 53-year-old Margarita Flores and her 31-year-old daughter, Delia Morin, shot to death in a hallway. Flores’ son, Dan Morin, 22, was critically wounded.

Authorities said Ernest Moore had gone to the home looking for a former girlfriend who was staying there. She was present but was not injured. Some reports stated that Dan Morin had been dating Moore’s former girlfriend, and that the confrontation began when Moore came to the house seeking her. After the shootings, Moore fled the scene in a pickup truck.

Law enforcement officers later located the pickup near the Moore family home, about 10 miles away near San Benito. Local authorities requested assistance, and several agencies joined the search, including Cameron County sheriff’s deputies, Texas Department of Public Safety personnel, and U.S. Border Patrol agents. Three Border Patrol agents joined the response while officers searched the area near Moore’s family property.

As officers prepared to leave the Moore home area, Moore emerged from a nearby cornfield and opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle. Reports described the attack as an ambush. Border Patrol Agent Ricardo Guillermo Salinas, 24, and Border Patrol Agent Susan Lynn Rodriguez, 28, were fatally shot. Cameron County Sheriff’s Deputy Raul Rodriguez, 32, was critically wounded. A third Border Patrol agent was not injured.

Agent Susan Lynn Rodriguez was reported as the first female U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in the line of duty. She was a six-year Border Patrol veteran, married to an immigration officer, and the daughter of a retired Border Patrol official. Agent Ricardo Guillermo Salinas was from San Antonio and had recently graduated from the Border Patrol Academy.

Officers returned fire during the shootout. Moore was shot several times and was taken to a hospital in Harlingen, where he later died the same day. Because he died before any prosecution could occur, there was no trial or conviction. News reports and later civil litigation identified him as the perpetrator of the Rio Hondo home killings and the ambush that killed the two Border Patrol agents.

The case later led to civil litigation involving the City of Harlingen. Reports stated that the rifle used in the ambush had allegedly been turned over to Harlingen police for destruction, but was instead taken home by Moore’s father, a police detective, and later used by Ernest Moore during the gunfight. A federal jury later awarded damages to relatives of the slain agents and to the wounded deputy, though city officials said they would appeal. These civil claims did not change the criminal facts of the case, but they became part of the public record surrounding the shootings.