David Lance Holguin was a 24-year-old deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who was killed on September 5, 1984, in Bell, California. After finishing his shift he stopped at a bus stop at Florence and Vinevale Avenues because a young child was alone there; he called the Bell Police Department and identified himself as an officer while waiting for help. The child’s father arrived and an argument followed.

A passerby, not recognizing Holguin as a deputy because he was in plain clothes and had no visible badge, intervened, saw Holguin’s firearm and opened fire, fatally wounding him. The shooter was arrested and charged with second-degree murder; the case left Holguin’s mother and two sisters mourning his loss.

What details might help explain how a routine check turned into a fatal confrontation?