On the evening of January 5, 2022, a home in the 2400 block of University Drive in Valdosta, Georgia, was struck by multiple gunshots. Frederick Gillard III, 28, was inside the house with a 35-year-old woman and three children, ages one, twelve, and seventeen, when officers responding to numerous 911 calls at about 7:37 p.m. found him with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced deceased.

Detectives developed information pointing to 18-year-old Reco Jones, Jr., a Lowndes County resident. With Hahira Police Department assistance, officers located Jones at his home about 11:45 p.m. that night. Evidence recovered from the scene and from Jones’s residence led to his arrest without incident and his transport to the Lowndes County Jail. He was charged with felony murder in connection with Gillard’s death, seven counts of felony aggravated assault, five misdemeanor counts of cruelty to children in the third degree, and one felony count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

What details about the events that evening might still help clarify who was in the house and how the shooting began?