BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Long-simmering tension over the placement of cremated remains spilled over into a fight at a family barbecue in late April.

Days later, a shooting left one family member dead and another facing a murder charge.

Barney Crowles, 32, shot Juan Felipe Neri, 42, outside a home on Chelsea Street the evening of May 3, according to reports filed by sheriff’s investigators. He claimed self-defense.

Crowles said he fired one shot as Neri punched and threatened to kill him, then fired two more shots as Neri stumbled, but “was intentionally not trying to shoot at Neri,” the reports say.

An autopsy revealed all three shots entered Neri’s back, according to the reports.

Crowles was initially questioned by detectives on May 8 at the office of his attorney, Mark Anthony Raimondo. A charge of first-degree murder was filed against him last month and he has a preliminary hearing scheduled in September. He’s being held without bail.

The reports, heavily-redacted copies of which were received through the Kern County Superior Court, indicate Neri is the brother of Crowles’ stepfather.

The stepfather’s ashes, another family member told deputies, have been a source of numerous arguments since his death five years ago. At the barbecue, punches were thrown and Crowley was among those injured in a melee that began after a family member argued about the urn’s location, according to the documents.

Another witness said Neri wasn’t at the barbecue but later heard about the fight and became upset and threatened others over it.

In the May 8 interview, Crowles said he received phone calls from family members telling him to go to the Chelsea Street home because Neri was there and “he’s going crazy,” according to the documents. They mentioned Neri had a gun, Crowles said.

When he arrived, Crowles told detectives, Neri ran toward his vehicle and kicked the driver’s side door as he opened it. He said Neri began punching him while he remained seated.

“F— you, mother——, I told you I was going to f—ing kill you,” Crowles said Neri told him during the assault, according to the documents.

A gun fell from Neri’s waistband onto the floorboard, Crowles said. He picked it up.

“So I kicked him off, and I, I fired a shot,” he told detectives. He said he didn’t look when he fired the two additional shots, but his arm, although not raised straight up, was positioned at an upward angle to avoid hitting Neri.

Others disputed that Neri was armed, the reports say.

Crowles claimed Neri hit him in the head and tried to gouge his eyes out, but detectives noted there were no visible injuries to his face, head or neck.

They questioned him over the firing of the two additional shots. Did he still believe his life was in danger as Neri moved away from him? Why not just drive away?

Crowles told them he didn’t know what Neri was trying to do. He had no answer as to why he didn’t leave, according to the documents.