On July 4, 1995, Lieutenant Danny Elkins, 42, of the Yuma Police Department was shot and killed inside the Yuma headquarters while investigating missing evidence. Elkins and Arizona Department of Public Safety Sergeant Michael Crowe had gone to the building to look into paperwork and were unarmed when they discovered a burglary in progress. The shooter was Yuma County Sheriff’s Deputy Jack Ray Hudson Jr., a member of the same multi-agency narcotics task force and a subordinate to Elkins and Crowe.

Hudson, who had been stealing guns and narcotics from the task force and struggling with a methamphetamine addiction, opened fire with a Cobray 9mm automatic weapon. Crowe was hit in the initial volley; Elkins called for help from a side office before Hudson shot him multiple times. Both officers were found fatally wounded; Hudson was arrested in the parking lot. A search of his home recovered 40 weapons, 25 stolen from the task force, and he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

What details about Elkins and Crowe’s work on the Southwest Border Alliance task force might help explain how this betrayal went undetected?