Jamal Marcel Butler was 18 when he was shot and killed on October 18, 2011, along the 500 block of W. E. Morton Avenue in Opelika, Alabama. Officers found him behind an apartment complex with gunshot wounds to the upper torso; he was taken to East Alabama Medical Center and pronounced dead. Initial reporting described a tense scene of witnesses and investigators attempting to piece together what happened while the neighborhood reacted with fear and rumor.

Two days later, Opelika police said Jadarius Lamar Dowdell of Opelika turned himself in on October 20, 2011, and was charged with murder in connection with Butler’s death. Butler’s funeral service was held Monday, October 24, 2011, at Thompson Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church, followed by burial in Garden Hills Cemetery. If anyone has information about what happened that afternoon along W. E. Morton Avenue, please come forward.