William Francis Bill Degan, a 42-year-old deputy U.S. Marshal, was killed by a rifle shot in Boundary County, Idaho, on August 21, 1992. Degan was part of a six-man surveillance team scouting the remote mountain cabin of Randy Weaver, who had failed to appear on federal firearms charges. The marshals, wearing camouflage, were attempting to plan an arrest when the Weaver family’s dog, Striker, alerted and a confrontation at a fork in a trail ended in a chaotic exchange of gunfire.

Also killed in the firefight was Weaver’s 14-year-old son Samuel. The man identified as firing the shot that killed Degan was Kevin Harris, a friend of the Weaver family who had been at the cabin. The initial shooting triggered the 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff at the Weaver property. Prosecutors later charged Harris with Degan’s murder, arguing he shot Degan in cold blood; Harris’s defense said he fired in self-defense after Samuel Weaver was shot. Physical evidence introduced at trial did not decisively support either account, and a jury acquitted Harris of murder.

Did anyone with knowledge of the surveillance operation, the path at the fork where the shooting began, or Striker’s movements come forward with information?