On the late hours of New Year’s Day 2017, gunfire that some neighbors first mistook for fireworks ended the life of 43-year-old Robert Ward inside his Sam Donald Road home in Nolensville, Tennessee. Ward’s 10-year-old son was in the house and found his father in a pool of blood; the child was physically unharmed. This was the town’s first homicide since incorporation in 1996.

Investigators from the Nolensville Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation tied the shooting to a dispute involving Ward’s older son, Ryan. According to the investigation, a $250 deal for an ounce of marijuana between Ryan and a man named Miles Holt went bad when Holt allegedly failed to deliver the drugs. Ryan then broke a window on Holt’s car, and witnesses say Holt and a friend drove to the Ward residence in retaliation. Miles Richardson Holt, 18, of Franklin, and 20-year-old Jonathon Kyle Elliott of Antioch are accused of driving to the house; Elliott allegedly fired multiple rounds from an AK-47 into the occupied home, striking and killing Robert Ward. Both men were arrested on criminal homicide charges.

Did anyone in Nolensville know Robert Ward or his family and have details that might shed more light on the events leading up to that night?