Disturbing message shooter, 27, wrote on side of car before opening fire on border agents near airport in ambush
A CHILLING message was spray-painted on the side of the car of the gunman who was shot dead after ambushing border patrol agents this morning.
The man, identified as 27-year-old Ryan Louis Mosqueda, was killed on Monday after shooting at officials with a gun near a Texas airport.
The motive remains unclear.
Mosqueda was shot and killed by agents during the shootout, according to McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez.
A McAllen police officer was injured in the knee but will recover, police said.
Two officers and one Border Patrol employee were injured, according to the FBI.
All three were taken to the hospital.
The shooter, originally from Michigan, had been reported missing just hours earlier from Weslaco, Texas.
The car held more guns and ammunition, according to police, with what officials believe to be writing in Latin inside the vehicle.
He was also carrying a backpack with more ammunition, Rodriguez said.
On the side of a white Chevy photographed near the scene, the words “Cordis Die” were written in black spray paint across the driver’s side door.
The phrase is not a standard or classic Latin phrase, but appears to have originated in the 2012 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II and roughly translates to “the day of the heart.”
In the game, it represents a militant anarchist terrorist organization that is the main antagonist of the story.
Game publisher Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The threats are always looming, they’re always present, and incidents like these make us realize that we’ve always got to be on guard,” Rodriguez said.
“I think I speak for everybody here, the world is much smaller than we think sometimes.”
He was carrying a Michigan driver’s license, police said, and had Michigan plates on his vehicle.
The shooting resulted in delays for flights at the McAllen Airport.
“I cannot tell you how many rounds were fired from the suspect, but there were many, many, many dozens of rounds fired by the suspect toward the building and toward agents in that building,” Rodriguez said.
“We have no reason to believe at this point in time that there are any more threats in this area.”
The FBI is now leading the investigation.
“It takes events like these to really wake you up and say, you know what we’re really, really tiny in terms of the world,” Rodriguez said.
