On September 29, 1981, Texas Department of Public Safety Officer David Rucker was shot and killed along a stretch of highway a few miles north of Brownsville, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Rucker's body, discovered by a passerby, was lying beside his patrol car. He had been shot in the head. Around the same time, Los Fresnos police officer Enrique Carrisalez observed a speeding vehicle traveling on the same road away from where Rucker's body had been found. Carrisalez and his civilian friend, Enrique Hernandez, turned on the patrol car's flashing red lights and pursued the vehicle, which pulled over. Carrisalez took a flashlight and walked toward the car. The driver of the vehicle opened his door and exchanged words with Carrisalez before firing at least one shot at Carrisalez' chest. He died eight days later on October 7, 1981. Former U.S. Navy and Vietnam veteran Leonel Torres Herrera (September 17, 1947 – May 12, 1993) was arrested and was charged with the capital murder of both Carrisalez and Rucker.