Harold Vincent Mooring, 47, a White male federal prohibition agent, was working undercover in Cosmopolis, Washington, investigating a suspected bootlegging operation when a patron recognized him as a federal agent. As he left the premises on September 21, 1923, he was shot from behind and critically wounded, the attack coming in connection with an investigation focused on a local cigar store and its owner. Despite the severity of his injuries, Mooring survived the immediate assault.
In the months that followed, Mooring recovered enough to take the stand and testify against the men involved in the shooting. The defendants were apprehended and convicted of assault, but Mooring's health never fully returned. Complications from the gunshot wound led to pneumonia, and he died on April 1, 1925, his end of watch recorded nearly two years after the attack that had first brought him down on the streets of Cosmopolis.
Authorities described the assailants as operators tied to the cigar store under scrutiny during the bootlegging probe, and the case moved forward on those charges rather than a homicide count at the time. Mooring had been assigned to the Seattle field office, and his death was formally linked to the earlier shooting that occurred during the Cosmopolis investigation.
