Anahitdeep Singh Sandhu, a 20-year-old male U.S. Marine from Kent, Washington, was fatally shot on the evening of April 28, 2019, outside the King Villas apartments in Perry, Georgia. Sandhu, who was stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina, was on leave visiting a fellow Marine from the Perry area. The two were staying with friends at the apartment complex at the time of the incident.
He had no other known connections to the area.
The shooting occurred during what authorities believe was a botched robbery attempt. Two men reportedly approached Sandhu with the intent to rob him. When Sandhu, who was armed, reached for his own weapon, he was shot multiple times. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The assailants fled the scene without taking anything.
An investigation by the Perry Police Department, with assistance from the FBI and the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, led to the swift arrest of two suspects. Twenty-five-year-old Quavion Shaquil Rountree, a resident of the apartment complex where the shooting took place, was arrested two days later in Macon and charged with murder. A second suspect, 24-year-old Delvin Devon Ross, was taken into custody the following day and charged with party to the crime of murder, accused of providing the gun to Rountree.
In June 2021, a jury found Quavion Rountree guilty of malice murder. During the trial, witnesses testified that Rountree was the shooter. His defense claimed self-defense, but this was contradicted by witness testimony. Rountree was subsequently sentenced to life in prison on July 7, 2021. He later appealed his conviction, arguing that the jury should have been given the option of considering voluntary manslaughter. However, the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld his murder conviction in June 2023.
