On the evening of Wednesday, February 5, 1986, Detroit Police Department officer Giacomo Jack Buffa, 37, was killed during an operation at 537 E. Euclid. Buffa, a 13-year veteran, was working in plainclothes with a partner as part of a drug raid at that address when another pair of plainclothes officers, including Mark Radden, arrived separately to respond to a reported shooting at the same residence.

Unaware of each other’s presence, the two undercover units mistook one another for armed suspects. An exchange of gunfire ensued; both Giacomo Buffa and Mark Radden were struck and later died of their wounds. The deaths were ruled the result of inadvertent gunfire between officers, with no outside suspects and no arrests related to criminal activity.

What information do readers have about how communication between those details broke down that night?