Mexican authorities say Chad Eberle fled north with his 3-year-old son after an attack in Saltillo that left three people dead.

SALTILLO, Mexico — A Texas reserve police officer accused of killing three people and critically wounding the mother of his young son during a custody-related confrontation in northern Mexico was captured hundreds of miles away near the U.S. border with the child in his company, according to Mexican authorities and news reports.

Chad Eberle, 35, was taken into custody after the Aug. 4 attack in Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila state. The Coahuila Attorney General’s Office later obtained an arrest warrant alleging his probable responsibility for femicide and qualified homicide in criminal case 547/2026JEVF. Authorities transferred him back to Saltillo and placed him in the city’s men’s penitentiary while the case moved through the Mexican court system. The accusations remain allegations, and the public record reviewed for this report does not show a final judgment in the case.

The case began as what Mexican authorities and several local news organizations described as a dispute involving Eberle’s effort to take his 3-year-old son. Reports said Eberle had gone to see the child and that the confrontation escalated after he was unable to take custody of him. Authorities allege gunfire followed. The available reports do not establish the full history of the parents’ custody dispute, the precise terms of any Mexican custody arrangement or what was said immediately before the shooting. Those questions are among the details that would have to be established through evidence in the criminal proceedings.

Authorities and local reporting identified the three people killed as Ana Laura de León Morín, 44; Laura Jaquelín Mora de León, 22; and Emanuel Montero, 54. Litzy Anahí Mora de León, the mother of Eberle’s son, survived but was reported in grave condition after the attack. Early accounts varied on some ages and spellings of names, but later local reporting and Texas television coverage provided fuller identifications. Officials have not publicly released a complete minute-by-minute account of the shootings, and the reporting reviewed does not establish that every person was shot in the same part of the property.

After the violence, investigators say Eberle left Saltillo with the boy and headed north through Coahuila toward the international boundary. The journey from Saltillo to Piedras Negras covers hundreds of miles and ends opposite Eagle Pass, Texas. Mexican authorities launched a search while prosecutors sought judicial authority to arrest him. Police eventually intercepted Eberle near an international bridge in Piedras Negras before he crossed into the United States, according to the Coahuila prosecutor’s office and local reports. The boy was found alive and was not reported to have been physically injured.

The child’s recovery became a separate immediate concern from the homicide investigation. Coahuila officials said the boy was placed in the care of the state’s child protection agency, known as PRONNIF, and returned to Saltillo under official supervision. The prosecutor’s office also said it was communicating with the U.S. Consular Office as the case developed. Public statements did not detail the child’s longer-term placement, and authorities appropriately released little additional information about the 3-year-old because he is a minor caught in an ongoing criminal and family matter.

Eberle’s arrest also drew attention in Texas because he had worked for numerous law enforcement agencies before the killings. Records obtained by Univision San Antonio showed that he received a Texas peace officer license in 2017 and later worked for agencies that included the Northside Independent School District Police Department, Gregory Police Department, Lockney Police Department and Bangs Police Department. He also served as a deputy constable in Bexar County Precinct 2. His history across several departments turned what began as a local homicide case in Saltillo into a matter with law enforcement connections on both sides of the border.

At the time of the attack, Eberle was associated with the Santa Anna Police Department in Texas. City officials described him in a statement reported by Texas media as an unpaid reserve officer who had joined the department in November 2025 and typically worked one weekend each month. Officials said he had been on a personal leave of absence and that the department had contacted the U.S. Consulate in Mexico and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement after learning about the case. The city said it would make no further public comment while the investigation remained active.

Later reporting added another issue for investigators: Coahuila Attorney General Federico Fernández said authorities were examining information indicating Eberle had been subject to a U.S. protective restriction connected to a history of alleged family violence and was prohibited from possessing firearms. Reporting from a subsequent court proceeding said prosecutors alleged he entered Mexico with a .45-caliber firearm despite that restriction. Those claims form part of the prosecution account and should not be treated as findings of guilt. The available public records reviewed for this article do not independently establish how the weapon allegedly crossed the international border or when Eberle obtained it.

The Mexican legal process moved quickly in the days following the arrest. The Coahuila prosecutor announced an arrest warrant on Aug. 5, and officials said Eberle was admitted to the Saltillo men’s penitentiary at 9:59 p.m. that day. Local court reporting said a judge later ordered that he remain in preventive detention while prosecutors pursued allegations of femicide and qualified homicide. Subsequent coverage said the case was allowed to proceed after prosecutors presented evidence that local outlets described as including a firearm and surveillance video. Eberle’s defense challenged aspects of the government’s evidence, according to those reports.

Femicide is a specific offense under Mexican criminal law used in cases in which prosecutors allege that a woman was killed under circumstances tied to gender-based violence. Its use in Eberle’s case reflects the legal theory selected by Mexican prosecutors; it is not a declaration that the allegation has been proved. Qualified homicide likewise carries legal elements that must be established in court. Because the alleged crimes occurred in Coahuila and Eberle was captured before reaching the United States, the criminal proceedings described in the available reports have remained in Mexico rather than shifting to a Texas court.

One unresolved part of the case is what happened in the hours before the victims were discovered. A neighbor told local media she had not heard gunshots or a fight and became involved only after a family member was unable to reach relatives at the home. That account provides a view of how the scene was found but does not establish the sequence of the alleged killings. Investigators continued processing the property after the attack, while prosecutors built the case that would later be presented in court. No publicly released material reviewed for this report provides a complete forensic reconstruction.

As of the latest public information located for this report, Eberle remained subject to the Mexican criminal process in Saltillo, while the boy had been placed under Coahuila child-welfare protection. The prosecutor’s public news feed contains the August notices announcing the arrest warrant and Eberle’s transfer to the penitentiary but does not provide a later final disposition. The current condition of the surviving woman, the child’s eventual custody arrangement and the timetable for any trial or later hearing have not been established in the more recent official material reviewed.

Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.