El Paso County Sheriff's Office, Texas
End of Watch: Wednesday, November 18, 1931
Age: 54
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: November 18, 1931
Weapon Used: Handgun
Suspect Info: Never apprehended
Deputy Sheriff Robert Alexander Trice was shot and killed at 2:15 am after interrupting several men attempting to break into a store in Clint.
His body was not found until 6:00 a.m. when the owner arrived to open the store. Deputy Trice had been shot three times at close range. Deputy Trice's watchman's clock showed he had rung in at 2:15 a.m., probably a few minutes before the shooting took place. The killers took his pistol and keys. The front door of the store had holes bored into the lock.
The newspaper reported that Deputy Trice had arrested two men about six months earlier who were committing area burglaries and fleeing back into Mexico afterward. The store had been burglarized three times recently.
Three men were arrested by Juarez, Mexico police with evidence from another store burglary and cartridges from the same caliber that killed Deputy Trice. Fingerprints were lifted at the scene and compared to the three suspects. They were later released. It is unknown if anyone was ever arrested or convicted for the murder of Deputy Trice.
Deputy Trice was reported to have lived in and around Clint for 23 years. He was survived by his wife, five sons and two daughters. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in El Paso.