On July 7, 1998, Border Patrol Agent Ricardo Guillermo Salinas and several other agents responded to a call for assistance from the Cameron County Sheriff's Department south of Benito, Texas. The Sheriff's deputies were pursuing a double homicide suspect. Agent Salinas was helping to set up a perimeter in an attempt to confine the suspect to a wooded area where he was believed to be hiding.
As Agents Salinas and Susan Lynn Rodriguez walked back to their vehicle, the suspect emerged from a cornfield and began firing on them and other law enforcement officers at the scene. During the ensuing gun battle, Agents Salinas and Rodriguez were killed.
At the time of his death, Agent Salinas was assigned to the Harlingen Station of the McAllen Sector. He was a graduate of the 351st session of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Charleston, South Carolina.