A longstanding feud in Merrydale, Louisiana, ended in deadly violence on the night of September 27, 2024. Forty-year-old Shelita Vallery, known as Bee, was at her mother’s home on Grayson Avenue when an argument escalated into a physical fight and then gunfire. Vallery, her boyfriend David Celestine, 62, and her relative Paul Lewis, 63, were all shot. Vallery and Celestine were pronounced dead at the scene; Lewis was taken to a hospital and later died of his wounds.

Family members say Vallery died trying to protect her nephew during the confrontation. Two 19-year-olds from the same apartment complex, Dominik Franklin and Tyrone Eackles, went to the house that evening and were arrested after the shooting. Both were injured and treated at a hospital before being held; Franklin was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in initial reports, while Eackles faced counts as a principal to first-degree murder and illegal use of a firearm in early accounts.

Does anyone in Merrydale have information about the feud or that night that could help clarify what happened?