Detective Eric Tyrone Smith Sr., 40, was shot and killed inside the Jackson Police Department headquarters on the evening of April 4, 2013, during what began as an interrogation. A 23-year-old suspect, Jeremy Powell, was being questioned about a recent stabbing death when he overpowered Detective Smith and obtained the officer’s service weapon. Both men died at the scene; a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation inquiry concluded Powell shot and killed Detective Smith and then died from a gunshot wound.

Smith was an 18-year veteran of the Jackson Police Department and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He was married to a department sergeant and was a father to two sons. The department and community later honored him by renaming a portion of a street Detective Eric T. Smith Drive.

What details about the interrogation or security procedures that night might help explain how the suspect gained control of the weapon?