A longtime dispute between two men in the Crossroads community near Bay Minette ended in gunfire on the afternoon of Monday, January 25, 2021. Chase Devin Childress Sr., 29, was shot around 4 p.m. near Whippoorwill Lane and Alabama 225. Deputies found him with gunshot wounds, provided life-saving measures and he was taken first to a local ER and then to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He was initially listed in critical condition but died later that evening. He was a husband and father of a daughter and a son.

Investigators say Childress and the man accused, 30-year-old Christopher Lee Atchison, had once been friends and neighbors but had a long history of conflict. Authorities believe Atchison went to check on property he owned, an argument erupted, and Childress was shot in the parking lot of a closed restaurant. Officials say Childress was unarmed and struck by a single, close-range shot. Atchison was arrested, initially charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder, and after Childress’s death the charge was upgraded to murder; he was booked into the Baldwin County Corrections Facility and held without bond.

What details about that day or the two men’s falling-out might help explain how a neighborhood dispute escalated to homicide?