Double-murder suspect arrested in Milledgeville

Published 3:56 pm Friday, August 1, 2025

A man wanted for questioning in connection with the double murders of two men in Sandersville several days ago was captured Friday at a Milledgeville apartment complex.

Damian Kennon Reaves was taken into custody without incident about 2:15 p.m. at an apartment on the 200 block of West Habersham Street, Milledgeville Police Department Maj. Brandon Sellers confirmed in a telephone interview with The Union-Recorder.

Sellers said members of the Milledgeville Police Department’s Special Response Team (SRT), Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, police detectives and members of the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, along with deputies with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, were involved in the apprehension.

Sellers, who is the commander of the police department’s criminal investigation division, said law enforcement officers surrounded the apartment, watching the front and rear doors. He said the search for Reaves ended shortly thereafter.

“We started our search for the suspect here about 5:30 a.m. Friday morning,” Sellers said.

Sellers said law enforcement officers, including special agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation from the Region 6 GBI Offices in Milledgeville and Eastman also were involved in the search.

The CID commander said authorities were aided by tips from the public in their search for the suspect.

Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran, along with GBI agents, was involved in questioning Reaves Friday afternoon at the Milledgeville Police Department.

The 36-year-old Reaves, who is also known by the nickname “Knowledge,” is a suspect in the shooting deaths of 19-year-old Jonathan Carnez Burden and Eljjah Alphonso Graham, 22, both of Sandersville.

The shootings of both men happened about midnight July 27 at Washington Manor Apartments in Sandersville.

Burden died at the scene, while Graham died later at the Washington County Regional Medical Center in Sandersville.

Authorities have not publicly said what led up to the shootings.

Since then, officers and investigators with the Sandersville Police Department, along with the deputies and investigators with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, have been searching for Reaves’ whereabouts.

Sellers said once the questioning of Reaves concluded, he was expected to be taken back to Sandersville and placed in the Washington County Jail.