Tony James Ferguson, a 41-year-old Black man from Meridian, Georgia, was shot and killed on December 15, 2024. Deputies responded in the early-morning hours to reports of gunfire at a large gathering along Georgia Highway 99 near Swamp Road, with some accounts placing the scene near Palmer Court in McIntosh County. Ferguson was found amid a crowd with gunshot wounds and later died at Southeast Georgia Health System.

His funeral was held later that month at Elm Grove Baptist Church in Meridian. Investigators with the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office said the probe kept moving, and on January 15, 2025, authorities arrested George Big Head Shawn Humphreys, 33, of Brunswick; the Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force made the arrest in Jacksonville, Florida. Publicly listed charges included felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during certain crimes.

Did anyone at the gathering or in the area that night see details that could help clarify what happened?