James Edward Butler Jr, 27, was killed in a shooting at a Hodges Street residence in Metter, Georgia, in the early morning hours of Saturday, November 11, 2017. Metter police arrived about 12:30 a.m. and found Butler dead from a single gunshot wound; another man, 28-year-old Byron Brown, was shot and flown to a Savannah hospital with injuries.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation assisted local authorities and identified 29-year-old Akeem Ajima Lanier as the primary suspect after investigators concluded Butler and Lanier — acquaintances — had engaged in a dispute during which both were armed. Warrants charging Lanier with murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony were issued, and a multiagency search followed. Lanier was located and arrested without incident at a Metter residence on January 5, 2018; officers also found narcotics and a firearm there. The case records indicate a later plea to voluntary manslaughter and a prison sentence of 29 years and four months.

Are there details about Butler’s life in Metter or the circumstances that led to the dispute that anyone can share?