While out searching for a gang of rustlers, a group of American lawmen under the command of the Texas Ranger Frank Jones were attacked at the Mexican village of Tres Jacales.

The center for criminal activity in the area around El Paso was a place known as Pirate Island, a 15,000-acre ait near the present-day town of Fabens that was created when the Rio Grande shifted its course.

The leader of the gang was Jesus Maria Olguin, who rose to notoriety with his three sons, Severio, Sebastian, and Priscellano, after one of their relatives was killed by Texas Rangers during the San Elizario Salt War.

[1][4][5] In June 1893, El Paso County officials issued a warrant for the arrests of Jesus Maria and Severio for "horse and cattle Stealing [sic] and with assault with intent to commit murder."

Accordingly, the Americans fought their way back across the Rio Grande and made it to the small town of Clint, where news of the engagement was relayed to Sheriff Frank B. Simmons in El Paso.

[6] The following was written by Corporal Kirchner sometime after the shootout: We had searched several houses and were on our way back [to El Paso] when we saw two men approaching us when they saw us they began to retreat with all possible haste, of course we followed at once & only ran them out about one half mile when myself & Private Saunders overtaken them & demanded a surrender by this time we were not six feet from an adobe [jacal] building along the roadside[.]

Captain Jones was hit the first volley, his thigh was broken but he continued to shoot until shot in the breast & killed dead on the spot about 15 ft from the door[.]

However, Sheriff Simmons went to Ciudad Juarez and convinced the Mexican jefe, Rafael Garcia Martinez, to take the body to San Elizaro and hand it over.

[1][5][6] In a rare cooperative move, a posse under Sheriff Simmons combined with Mexican Army soldiers succeeded in capturing a few of the outlaws somewhere near Pirate Island a day or two after the shootout.

All were put in the jail at Ciudad Juarez, but because President Porfirio Diaz was angered by the American's violation of Mexico's sovereignty, he refused to have the outlaws extradited to the United States.