On the night of March 9, 1963, officers Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell made a traffic stop on the corner of Carlos Avenue and Gower Street and Hollywood. Early that day, the officers had been instructed to seek out and bust anyone they suspected of being engaged in gay sexual activity, and that night they were confident they’d found two men that fit the bill. However, after Campbell instructed both men to step out of the car, the driver, Gregory Powell, pulled out a pistol and held it on Campbell, effectively disarming him, while other man, Jimmy Smith, disarmed Hettinger. The two officers were then forced into Powell’s car and driven more than one hundred miles away, where they executed Ian Campbell, while Hettinger escaped into a nearby onion field and managed to find help at the home of a farmer.