Texas Police Officer Charged in Mexico With Killing Three People During Custody Dispute

A Texas police officer is sitting in a Mexican prison, charged with murdering three people during a custody dispute over his own son.

Chad Eberle, 35, worked as a police officer in Santa Anna, Texas, a small town in the central part of the state. Mexican authorities say he drove to a home in Saltillo, Coahuila, in July to pick up his three-year-old child. An argument broke out with the child's mother and her family. Eberle allegedly opened fire.

Three people died: Ana Laura, 44, Laura Jaquelín, 22, and Emanuel, 44, according to the Mexico City newspaper La Razon de Mexico. The child's 26-year-old mother was shot in the head and remains in critical condition, according to Coahuila officials.

Eberle fled the scene in a gray Chevrolet Silverado with his son, according to Mexican prosecutors. Coahuila state police launched a manhunt and tracked the truck toward the US border. They caught him at the international bridge in Piedras Negras, directly across from Eagle Pass, Texas, as he tried to cross back into the country with the child, according to KTXS and the Guardian.

The boy was unharmed. He's now in the custody of Coahuila's child protection agency, Pronnif, according to a statement from Coahuila Attorney General Federico Fernández posted on social media Thursday.

The charges

A Coahuila judge charged Eberle with two counts of femicide and one count of qualified homicide and ordered him held without bond, according to Breitbart Texas, which cited Coahuila law enforcement sources. Femicide under Mexican law applies specifically to the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender, distinct from the homicide charge tied to the male victim.

Fernández confirmed Eberle was booked into the Saltillo men's penitentiary and placed under the jurisdiction of Mexican judicial authorities. These are formal charges from Mexican prosecutors, not convictions. Eberle has not been tried, and no verdict has been reached.

Who is Chad Eberle

Eberle's law enforcement career moved around Texas quite a bit. According to reporting by the San Antonio Express-News, he worked as a deputy constable in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, and also served as a police officer for the Northside Independent School District. Before landing in Santa Anna, he held law enforcement jobs in Somerset, Marble Falls, Gregory near Corpus Christi, the Panhandle town of Lockney, and Bangs in West Texas.

A 2022 Facebook post from the Lockney Police Department described Eberle as an Army veteran, according to the Express-News.

Santa Anna city officials issued a statement about Eberle to the local outlet Coleman Today, though the specifics of what the city said about his employment status were not fully detailed in available reporting.

What's not resolved

The exact sequence of the argument that preceded the shooting hasn't been laid out in detail by Mexican prosecutors beyond it stemming from Eberle allegedly lacking permission to take the child. Whether Eberle has retained legal counsel in Mexico or filed any response to the charges is unclear.

Eberle is a US citizen and a Texas law enforcement officer arrested and charged for a crime allegedly committed entirely on Mexican soil. He'll face trial under Mexican law in a Mexican court for a killing that took place in Saltillo. Whether Texas or federal authorities open any parallel review of Eberle's conduct or law enforcement certification remains to be seen. None of the available reporting indicates any US-side investigation or licensing action has been announced.

The surviving victim, the child's mother, remains hospitalized in critical condition. Her prognosis has not been publicly updated since the initial reporting on the shooting.

Breitbart Texas's account, sourced to Coahuila law enforcement contacts, differs slightly on timing from the Guardian and IBTimes Singapore, which cite La Razon de Mexico's reporting that the shooting happened in July and the arrest came in early August. The discrepancy doesn't change the core facts: three dead, one critically wounded, a child recovered unharmed, and a Texas cop now behind bars in a Coahuila prison awaiting judicial proceedings that will determine his fate under Mexican law.