On October 11, 1983, Juan Garza, a 30-year-old Hispanic man, was shot to death in College Station, Texas. The attacker was identified as Eliseo Hernandez Moreno, who was the brother-in-law of Juan Garza. The killings of Juan and his wife, Esther Garza, were described as the opening acts of a violent spree that day.

Moreno’s rampage did not end in College Station. He went on to kill six people in total, including Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Russell Lynn Boyd, 25, who was shot after stopping Moreno for a traffic violation near Hempstead. Three elderly Hempstead residents — Ann Bennatt, 70; her sister Allie Wilkins, 79; and brother-in-law James Bennatt, 62 — were also killed. Moreno was arrested the same day, later convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Trooper Boyd and executed by lethal injection on March 4, 1987.