On February 12, 2017, gunfire erupted inside Club Envy in Caruthersville, Missouri, during an event attended by about 300 people. Thirty-one-year-old Freddie Rodgers Jr. was struck in the abdomen and taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:02 a.m. Five other people suffered gunshot wounds and another person was injured in the same incident.

Rodgers Jr. was born in Hayti, Missouri, on August 10, 1985, graduated from Caruthersville High School in 2005, and had worked at Trinity Marine for more than three years. He was described as a loving and protective father. The Caruthersville Police Department, the Pemiscot County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control led the investigation.

The day after the shooting authorities arrested Travis L. Ware II on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action; Anton Dunn Dunn Jones was later arrested on the same counts plus unlawful possession of a firearm. Both men waived formal arraignment and pleaded not guilty at court appearances in late February 2017. Anyone who was at Club Envy that night or has information about the shooting is asked to come forward.