On July 7, 1998, Border Patrol Agent Susan Lynn Rodriguez 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 Rodriguez was helping to set up a perimeter in an attempt to contain the fleeing suspect in a wooded area where he was believed to be hiding.

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As Agents Rodriguez and Ricardo Salinas walked back to their vehicle, the suspect emerged from a cornfield and began firing on them and the other law enforcement officers on the scene. During the ensuing gun battle, Agents Rodriguez and Salinas were killed.

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Agent Rodriguez was the first female agent in the history of the United States Border Patrol to lose her life in the line of duty. At the time of her death, she was assigned to the Harlingen Station of the McAllen Sector. She was a graduate of the 261st session of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Glynco, Georgia.