First El Paso Officer Killed In The Line Of Duty Finally Honored After 140 Years

For 140 years, Thomas P. Moad had been little more than a name on a plaque.

The first El Paso police officer ever killed in the line of duty, Moad was a former Texas Ranger who died in a gunfight on July 11, 1883. His killer fled to Mexico. His story faded into the archives. And for generations, the only people who remembered him were the ones who happened to glance at a list of the fallen on a police station wall.

That changed on May 16, 2026. The Concordia Heritage Association unveiled a dedicated stone monument for Thomas P. Moad at Concordia Cemetery, finally giving El Paso's first fallen officer the marker he never had. After 140 years, he was officially honored.

A Young Deputy, A Small Plaque, and a Question That Took Decades to Answer

The man who dug Moad's story out of the archives is retired police officer, writer, and historian Harry Kirk.

Kirk has been involved with the Concordia Heritage Association's Stories from the Stones series, a living history program where researchers bring forgotten El Pasoans back to life through first-person storytelling. He was the second historian to ever take the stage for the series. But his connection to Thomas Moad goes back much further than that, to when he was still a young deputy and noticed something on the wall of the station where he worked.

It was a small plaque. A list of fallen officers. And at the very top, the very first name on it, was Thomas P. Moad.

Kirk wanted to know more. Who was this man? How did he die? Why had nobody ever really told his story?

Years of research later, Kirk not only found the answers but brought Moad's story to life for an audience at Concordia. On May 16th, that work grew into something even bigger. Kirk spoke at the dedication, told Moad's story, and reflected on the way the past echoes through every dedicated officer who wears a badge. He stood alongside other retired police officers who are authors and historians in their own right. The ceremony was also joined by members of the Del Valle High School Law Enforcement program, which operates similarly to ROTC but prepares students specifically for careers in law enforcement. All gathered to honor not just the first officer to fall in the line of duty in El Paso, but to witness the unveiling of an official Texas Rangers Cross as well.

From the Texas Rangers to the Streets of El Paso

Before joining the El Paso Police Department, Thomas P. Moad served as a private in Company C of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers. He was the kind of lawman the frontier West demanded, someone who had already seen what the territory could throw at a badge before he ever pinned one on in El Paso.

His resume included helping capture William "Curly Bill" Brocious, one of the most notorious outlaw figures of the era. By the time Moad became El Paso's Assistant City Marshal, he had more frontier experience than most men twice his age.

But El Paso in 1883 was still a rough and unpredictable town, and on the night of July 11, a call came in from the Mansion House, a local brothel, where a group of drunken cowboys were causing a disturbance.

According to the local paper, 25-year-old Howard H. Doughty and a friend had arrived in town from Chihuahua and joined the chaos already unfolding inside. Doughty was a wealthy farmer, the kind of man whose money and land gave him a sense of untouchability, and when Moad walked in to restore order, Doughty gunned him down.

After the shooting, Doughty fled across the border into Mexico. A reward notice printed in the El Paso Herald described him as having his mustachios shaved off, his hair clipped closely, and dressed in light jeans pants with a buckskin jacket cut after the Mexican fashion. He was eventually captured, though no clear record survives of what charges, if any, were ever fully prosecuted.

Nobody Knows Where He Is Buried

Despite the ceremony taking place at Concordia Cemetery, nobody actually knows where Thomas P. Moad was buried. The history on that point has never been clean. One early account placed his burial near the old Fort Bliss barracks by the border. Another account pointed to Concordia. But after 140 years, no confirmed grave site has ever been located.

What the Concordia Heritage Association knows is that a man this important deserves to be remembered somewhere. Whether or not his remains ever surface, Moad's place in El Paso history is undeniable. He was the city's first lawman killed in the line of duty, and for too long that story existed only in dusty archives and on a small plaque that most people walked right past. The monument unveiled May 16th was Concordia's way of saying that is no longer good enough.

140 Years Later, the Rangers Came Back for One of Their Own

The Texas Rangers, the same organization Moad served before becoming El Paso's first police officer, authorized the use of the Texas Rangers Cross to be incorporated into his memorial. It was a rare gesture, and it closed a loop that had been open for a century and a half. The cross was officially unveiled at the ceremony, properly honoring Moad's full legacy as both a Ranger and a lawman.

Harry Kirk, whose curiosity started all of this, was also the man who made the monument physically possible. Kirk personally donated the stone for the dedication. He researched the story, told the story on stage at Stories from the Stones, and then made sure there would be something permanent left behind when the lights went down.

On May 16th, 2026, the man who helped bring order to that era finally got his name in stone.

Thomas P. Moad: 1st El Paso Officer Killed In The Line Of Duty

Thomas P. Moad was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the city of El Paso. For years, his misspelled name sat on a dusty plaque until retired officer Harry Kirk shared his story with the world. Now, 140 years later, Moad was given a dedicated monument at Concordia Cemetery and was even bestowed the honor of an official Texas Ranger Cross for his service with The Rangers before officially serving the city of El Paso.

Gallery Credit: Grizz

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Gallery Credit: Grizz