A confrontation outside an apartment complex in Starkville, Mississippi, on the afternoon of March 3, 2021, escalated into a shootout between 32-year-old Ernest D. Perkins Jr. and another 32-year-old man, Justin Vaughn. Both men were critically wounded; Vaughn died the evening of the shootout and Perkins was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where he died on March 4, 2021.

Ernest Perkins Jr. was born in Starkville on April 22, 1988. He worked as a painter and bred dogs, and he was the father of two sons, Maceo and Chaz Perkins. Authorities said the shootout grew out of a personal dispute between the two men and that investigators examined possible links to a wider pattern of violence affecting the Starkville area at that time.

Does anyone have information about the events on March 3, 2021, or about Ernest Perkins’ activities and connections in Starkville?