The evening of June 2, 1965, Moore was driving home from work when an individual in a pickup truck shot at him and his partner, David Creed Rogers, another African-American deputy sheriff. Moore lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree, dying instantly from a gunshot wound to the head. Rogers suffered injuries, including to one eye, but survived the shooting and crash; he immediately broadcast a description of the vehicle, which he noted had a Confederate flag decal on its front bumper. Two suspects were arrested in
Mississippi not long afterward. One was Ernest Ray McElveen, a known
white supremacist. McElveen was represented by
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attorney Osier Brown. He later also represented the two men charged with
Clarence Triggs' murder the following year in 1966. McElveen, the prime suspect in the case, died in 2003. The
Deacons for Defense and Justice, an African-American group with a chapter organized in 1965 in
Bogalusa, Louisiana, among other chapters, to protect civil rights workers, provided armed protection and support for Moore's widow and family. ==See also==