Verdicts & Settlements September 26, 2005: $1M for fatal shooting with stolen police rifle

The city of Harlingen, Texas has agreed to pay $1 million to settle claims from a 1998 rampage in which a police detective's son used a police gun to kill four people, including two U.S. Border Patrol agents and himself.

The Aug. 31 settlement in Brownsville federal court comes two years

Lawyers for the victims' families as well as a sheriff's deputy wounded by the gunfire argued city negligence allowed the weapon to wind up in the hands of 25-year-old Ernest Moore.

The semiautomatic rifle had been turned in to the police department for disposal. Instead, then-detective R.D. Moore was permitted to take it home.

On July 7, 1998, Ernest Moore, a known cocaine user with emotional problems, killed Margarita Flores and her daughter, Delia Morin, as he looked for his ex-girlfriend.

Hours later, he fatally shot U.S. Border Patrol agents Susan Lynn Rodriguez and Ricardo Guillermo Salinas, who were tracking him down in a field where he was hiding. He also shot and wounded Raul Rodriguez, a sheriff's deputy.

Broadus Spivey, attorney for the victims, said they decided to halt their appeal because the argument of state created danger has so far been rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

City officials said the $35 million would have drained city coffers and forced tax increases.