On the morning of April 9, 2021, at about 9:30 a.m., officers were called to the 900 block of East Lafayette Street in Abbeville after reports of shots fired. Responding officers found 25-year-old James Joseph Jr. suffering from at least one gunshot wound; he died despite emergency efforts.

Detectives treated the case as a homicide and opened an active investigation. Within weeks two arrests were announced: Jordan Tyler Matthews was charged as principal to second-degree murder, and Jacolby Nunez, 32, was served with a warrant for first-degree murder while already held in the Vermilion Parish Correctional Center on unrelated home invasion and simple burglary charges.

What details about that morning or the people involved might help explain what happened to James Joseph Jr.?