Jaime Zapata was born in Brownsville, Texas, United States, a border city directly north across Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was one of five brothers, all in the field of criminal justice. Zapata attended Homer Hanna High School, and later graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2005, where he attained a degree in Criminal Justice and an associate degree in Applied Science. Jaime Zapata entered on duty with Customs and Border Protection (Office of the Border Patrol) on February 6, 2006, as a Border Patrol Agent. Zapata was a member of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy’s 611th Session. After his graduation Zapata was assigned to the Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol Station. Zapata then joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations in 2006, after being assigned to the Office of the Deputy special agent in Laredo, Texas, where he served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit and in the Border Enforcement Security Task Force.

Two U.S. Homeland Security Investigations special agents, Jaime Zapata and Víctor Ávila, were traveling from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City on an assignment for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As they drove through the northern state of San Luis Potosí, the agents noticed two SUVs following them down Highway 57, a four-lane, federal highway from Mexico City to Monterrey. The two vehicles that came up behind them were at a high rate of speed, and were described as driving “aggressively,” according to agent Ávila. One vehicle passed the agents’ Suburban, while other gunmen started to fire at their vehicle, and eventually rammed them off the road. As one of the agents rolled down the window to inform them that they were U.S. diplomats, the agent recalls how one of the gunmen got off his vehicle, with an assault rifle in his hand, forced the door of the agents’ car open and shot point blank at them. When Zapata shifted the vehicle into park, its doors automatically unlocked. The Zeta gunmen pulled open the driver’s side door and tried to drag Zapata out, but he fought them off, managing to re-lock the doors. The agents, however, managed to crack the windows to talk with the assailants and identify themselves. The agents hoped to reason with the gunmen—as many as 15 of them—who surrounded the vehicle. According to congressman McCaul, the agents said “We’re Americans, we’re diplomats”, and the response from the drug cartels was bullets.

The gunmen then fled, and Ávila was able to use his cellphone to call for help. Dying, Jaime Zapata managed to put the car in gear and drive away before collapsing at the wheel. Soon afterwards, a Mexican federal police helicopter arrived where the two agents were. Ávila was shot twice in the leg, and was later sent to a hospital in the Houston, Texas. Jaime Zapata, however, gravely injured from three bullet wounds, died before the authorities could aid him with medical treatment. According to federal sources, the ambush took place at a fake military checkpoint established by the gunmen, who were dressed in camouflage uniforms and armed with machine guns.