Milledgeville man charged in Eatonton double-murder case

Published 12:52 pm Monday, June 21, 2021

EATONTON, Ga. — A 19-year-old Milledgeville man has been arrested in connection with a double-murder case at a government housing complex in Eatonton.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills said he arrested Xavier Rashad Chambers on Sunday night at a residence in Lawson Homes, where a shooting left another 19-year-old man as well as a 16-year-old dead from gunshot wounds.

Chambers is charged with two counts of malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count of possession of a firearm with an altered identification, according to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

The suspect, who was out of jail on bond in an unrelated murder case in Baldwin County, is being held in the Putnam County Jail in Eatonton.

Chambers is accused in the shooting deaths of Roman Felton Rowell, 19; and Jeremiah DeSean Walton, 16, both of Eatonton, according to the GBI press release.

The bodies of the victims will be sent to the GBI Crime Laboratory in Decatur for autopsies. During the autopsies, a medical examiner will determine the exact cause and manner of the deaths.

GBI agents from the Region 6 Office in Milledgeville were called to the scene of the shooting after officers with the Eatonton Police Department heard gunshots shortly before 9 p.m. in the Lawson Drive area. Police officers later discovered the bodies of the victims with what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

Sills said he and several deputies and detectives from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office went to the scene.

The sheriff said he later arrested Chambers, who fit the description of the shooting suspect.

Prior to the shooting, city police officers had gone to Lawson Homes to disperse a crowd of people reportedly fighting in the roadway according to the GBI.

Authorities have not released a motive for the shooting, although Sills said he believed it was gang-related.

Sills said when he received word that the Eatonton Police Department had turned the investigation over the GBI, he, along with his detectives and deputies left the scene.

GBI crime scene specialists have been involved in working to recover a number of projectiles and other crucial evidence since the shooting happened. They returned to the scene Monday morning to continue their search for evidence.

Brian Hargrove, assistant special agent in-charge of the GBI office in Milledgeville, flew a drone over the crime scene Monday morning.

The double-murder investigation remains ongoing, according to Mary Chandler, special agent in-charge of the GBI office in Milledgeville.

Anyone with information about the shooting or events leading up to it, is asked to the call the Eatonton Police Department at 706-485-3551 or the GBI office in Milledgeville at 478-445-4173.

Tips to the GBI also can be provided by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477) or online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.