Late on July 4th, 1995 Evidence Technician James Ehrhart, Lt. Dan Elkins and Sgt. Michael Crowe went to the Southwest Boarder Alliance office to track down a missing evidence key.

As the three left the building they were fired upon, without warning, by Officer Jack Hudson. Elkins and Crowe died that night. James Ehrhard survived by the miracle of a jammed gun.

What follows is the story of how theft from the evidence room led to the deaths of Elkins and Crowe, the attempted killing of Ehrhart and the arrest of Jack Hudson.

The Southwest Border Alliance (SBA) is a task force of federal, state and local officers. The task force of25-30 officers is always busy investigating drug trafficking and sales in the Yuma, Arizona area. Sometimes the investigations lead to major seizures and international connections. As part of the federal program Operation Alliance, SBA became known for cutting off U.S. access through the Arizona boarder.

It was last June that Jim Ehrhart noticed something was wrong in property. It was little things, the kind of things that only a seasoned property officer would notice. The position of locks on metal lockers were slightly ajar. He has always been careful to use certain "tricks". Jim would place a lock tumbler at specific location or stack a certain piece of evidence in a unique way. Jim had a particular procedure not noticeable to many. To Jim's trained eye, moved evidence stuck out as if lit by a neon light.

Access procedures were tightly controlled. Four keys existed. One belonged to Jim Ehrhart. The other three belonged to the Task Force Commander (Elkins), and two supervisors (one was Crowe, the other was on vacation). The SBA has heavy security, multiple alarms, and multiple levels of key access. When someone with a property room key went on vacation the property key was placed in the supervisor's office safe.

Access to the property area is restricted. Officers have a key and security code to close down the alarm. They enter a room that provides packaging materials and evidence storage lockers. Once the evidence is packaged properly, the items are submitted via the evidence lockers for processing. Entry to the property storage room is limited to four people. After turning off the alarm and entering the property packing area, a second key is needed to enter the property storage area.

Jim Ehrhart knew that entry had been made into the property room. However, no damage or missing items had been confirmed. As a protective measure a camera had been installed to record and ID, with the intention of prosecuting, any unauthorized person entering the room. Knowing that the access was restricted, the suspect had to be an SBA officer. Knowing which officer became the challenge. "An employee from the inside (SBA) who has access to some areas (packaging area) then gets access to all areas (property storage area) ... it's hard to determine who it was," commented Jim Ehrhart, "you expect the possibility of being compromised from without ... not compromised from within."

Ehrhart had contacted Lt. Elkins and Sg1. Crowe when they returned from vacation on July 4th. Ehrhart was concerned over the entries into the property area. Elkins asked Crowe and Ehrhart to meet him at the SBA offices to track down keys and share information about the entry into the property room.

The three arrived a little after 10 pm. Wearing shorts and t-shirts (Crowe had sandals on) they entered the building to locate keys. Leaving duty belts and guns in the trunks of their cars, the three men entered the building unarmed. There seemed no reason to be armed in the headquarters office.

Upon entering, they noticed Officer Hudson who was carrying bolt cutters and said he was doing his monthly report. They walked into the SBA Headquarters and proceeded to discuss the problem. They had accounted for three keys. The fourth supervisor would be returning from vacation in a day or so. The decision was made to "contact him upon his return.

Not knowing Hudson had broken into two office safes, Crowe, Elkins and Ehrhart began to leave the building. The doors of the offices that had been ransacked were closed. "Hudson could have just walked out to his car and left." Ehrhart said, "He knew he was in the middle of a major burglary but we didn't know."

As the three approached the exit, Hudson reached into an office, and pulled out a Cobray 9mm semi-auto machine gun. Believing he had been caught in the middle of a burglary, Hudson opened fire without warning. As Crowe was hit, Hudson turned toward Ehrhart. The gun jammed allowing Ehrhart to escape through the north door. Elkins ran back toward the office. Crowe was shot in the back three times as he continued toward the parking lot.

Hudson followed Crowe out to the parking lot. As Crowe begged "please, don't shoot me again", Hudson dropped a second twenty round clip into the Cobray and shot Crowe in the head. Hudson then returned to the offices to track down Elkins, who had hidden inside the building.

Tapes of the 911 call to Yuma City Police reveal Elkins' call for help. 

  "We need units out here, hurry, at SBA. .. 
  We've got a man with a gun out here at SBA ... 
  He ... he's an agent who's gone  918
  Hurry, he's shooting guns, he's firing  rounds  hurry up!
  Hurry!" 

While units rolled on the call to SBA, Hudson tracked down Elkins. Elkins moved to another office to wait for backup. Hudson found him and shot him within four minutes of the 911 call. (Elkins was pronounced dead at the hospital.)

Ehrhart escaped and ran to another building in the complex to obtain help and retrieve a weapon. Aware of the possibility that Hudson might track him down, Ehrhart kept watch as he told Larry Wheeler to call 911 and tell them what was going on. The 911 operator began trying to get the name of the suspect. The police dispatch became concerned that if the shooter killed everyone at the site, they would have difficulty knowing who did the shooting. Hudson had not been named.

When units arrived at SBA they first reached Sgt. Michael Crowe, who was dying from his wounds. Yuma Police Sgt. Andy Campbell found Crowe, covered in blood, struggling to move. "He said 'Hu-son' two or three times as I was nearly face-to-face with him", Campbell said in a written note. (Crowe died in surgery.)
 

Hudson, was arrested outside the building. He had called his wife on a cellular phone to tell her he "had to give (himself) up or they will kill me". Covered with blood, Hudson was arrested without incident. Officers found the 9mm Cobray on the front seat of his car, and $49,000 in cash (believed to have been stolen from the SBA offices) in the trunk of the vehicle. Lab tests later revealed that Hudson had been under the influence of methamphetamine and amphetamine at the time of the shootings.

Dr. Phillip Keen, Mariocopa County Medical Examiner, said test results don't necessarily mean Hudson used both drugs. The body partially converts meth. (crank) into amphetamine (speed). Keen said "meth" can cause a user to feel paranoid as it wears off, which in turn can give rise to wild, erratic behavior and violence.

A sworn statement investigators filed with the court stated, "It was apparent that Hudson was stealing evidence items from the property room and offices at SBA to use as his own property". Court documents revealed that a search of Hudson's home resulted in the seizure of 43 firearms (25 identified as task force evidence including two AK-47's, three sawed-off shotguns and two AR-15's), marijuana, methamphetamine and amphetamines. Weapons systems, a night scope and other agency property was also retrieved.

"It took a lot of planning. It wasn't spur of the moment", commented Ehrhart. In his voice you can still hear his concern over what happened July 4th. "Something like this is supposed to happen somewhere else - not with people who swear to protect people and then aren't like that... "Ehrhart, the SBA, and responding agencies struggle to move on after the incident.
 

The county has accumulated more than 1000 pages of police reports and other documents on this investigation. Over 414 photographs and 40 witnesses are being lined up for a trial expected to begin next June. Awaiting analysis are 368 pieces of evidence from the crime scene. An inventory of the SBA property/evidence room is near completion. Evidence packages had been found torn open, revealing drugs and money. An accounting of the SBA office property is still in progress. "The FBI has reviewed the operations of the SBA at the request of the SBA Board, but has not yet prepared its audit report", Yuma Police Chief Robinson stated. Once the report is received changes will be considered. It is hard to determine what changes might be needed. After all as Ehrhart put it, "you don't suspect fellow workers - they are not supposed to be suspects". It is hard to create a system that would not have been circumvented because a key was stolen out of an office safe after an employee forced it open. Most security systems are designed on the premise of needing to keep the bad guys out ... not to keep fellow police from breaking into an office safe.

Video cameras revealed Jack Hudson in only 6 of the 2000 frames taken by the evidence room surveillance camera. Hudson, who earned $12.29 per hour (about $25,773.90 per year) was assigned to the SBA by his agency the Yuma County Sheriff's Department. He was a former Marine Staff Sgt., three year police veteran and former department "Rookie of the Year".

He was the "kind of guy people depended on". Hudson was an "exemplary deputy who had a flawless record", said Yuma Sheriff Ralph Ogden, "He was a damn fine officer." Hudson had worked one year at the S BA. He did not fight the county when notified his job had been terminated. Now held under a suicide watch and $15.5 million bail, he awaits a June 1996 trial. Hudson has been charged with two counts of first degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, theft of government property, theft of police held evidence, and burglarizing the SBA and adjoining U.S. Customs Offices (located at the same address) between June 15 and July 4.

Yuma Police Lt. Dan Elkins, 42, who headed the taskforce, was laid to rest with full police honors. The son of a former Yuma City Police Chief, Elkins started as a Yuma Deputy Sheriff, then went to work for Yuma PD (after his father retired) in 1980. Growing up as the son of the Chief, council people and city officials had known him since childhood. "It's hard enough to go through the death of a police officer; its harder when it is a part of your extended family," commented one city council member. Lt. Elkins is survived by his wife Elizabeth, son Jared and daughter Audra.

Department of Public Safety Sergeant Michael Crowe, 41, was a 15 year DPS veteran, moving to the agency in 1980 from the Mesa Police Department. Assigned to Criminal Investigations Bureau in Nov. 1994, he had been assigned to the S BA for less than a year. He was buried with full honors. He leaves his wife Stephany, and two daughters Cherylnn ,14, and Breanne, 12.

James Ehrhart goes to work every day at the SBA. He struggles with why he lives and the others did not. "If the gun had not jammed, all three of us might have died...who's to know...", says James Ehrhart in a calm, quiet voice. Asked about what he might have done differently, ''Ten-thirty at night on a holiday ... Crowe and Elkins had just come back from vacation ... there was no concern about other employees working in the building. It never arose to be more cautious ... the only thing I have changed is I never go anywhere without a weapon..." In his voice you can hear that more than just that has changed.

You can hear the personal courage it took to survive, and the distant echo of ''why me" when trying to determine how he made it through when the others didn't. You can barely make out the sense of anguish over having to be a witness against a police officer. You can hear the integrity he takes to work every day, and the sense of loss at the absence of Lt. Elkins and Sgt. Crowe. You can hear 24 years as a police officer keeping it all together.

Counselors were brought in by the agencies involved. Slowly. the Yuma area begins to heal. It was estimated that there was a five day window from the time that Ehrhart first noticed evidence was disturbed until the shootings occurred. Five days in which a missing evidence room key escalated to murder.

James Ehrhart,
Evidence Technician