On the night of July 29, 2018, 20-year-old Rahmier Gardner was enjoying a night out with friends at the Brunswick Zone bowling alley on Lawrenceville Highway in Lilburn, Georgia. In the middle of a game, when it was his turn to bowl, his friends realized he had stepped outside. Unbeknownst to them, he had gone out into the parking lot for what investigators believe was a prearranged meeting.
It was there that his life was cut short in a burst of violence.
Police responded to a 911 call reporting a shooting and found Gardner in the parking lot with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene. Gardner, a graduate of Brookwood High School where he played baseball, was a student at Kennesaw State University with aspirations of earning a business degree and investing in the stock market. His family and friends described him as an energetic, charismatic, and fun-loving young man who never met a stranger and had a smile that could light up a room.
The investigation into the senseless killing led Lilburn police to identify three suspects. In September 2018, authorities arrested 18-year-old Geovanni Perez and 18-year-old Khalid Bays, charging them with felony murder and aggravated assault. At the time of his arrest for Gardner's murder, Bays was already in custody in Atlanta for the separate murder of a non-profit worker, Beverly Jenkins, that occurred in August 2018.
A month later, in October 2018, a third suspect, 17-year-old Estefania Castro, was arrested and also charged with felony murder in connection with Gardner's death. Investigators determined that at least one of the teens was an acquaintance of Gardner and that the deadly encounter was not a random act of violence, but rather centered around a transaction that took place outside the bowling alley. The arrests brought a measure of closure to a grieving family and community rocked by the sudden loss of a promising young man.
