Ja’marion Rolle, an 11-year-old boy, was killed on September 20, 2026, when gunfire erupted during a family gathering at the Nissan Golden Gate apartment complex on North Hairston Road in the Stone Mountain area of DeKalb County, Georgia. His 12-year-old brother, Ja’Khi Clark, was also fatally wounded. Two female relatives were struck by gunfire and survived. Authorities said all four people who were shot were members of the same family.
DeKalb County police were called to the apartment complex at approximately 6 p.m. after receiving reports that several people had been shot. Officers found Ja’marion suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His brother was critically wounded and transported to a hospital, where he later died. Ja’marion’s mother described finding one of her sons wounded outside and the other inside the family’s home after the shooting began.
The family had been having a barbecue when the violence unfolded. Ja’marion’s mother told local news outlets that she believed the confrontation was connected to a dispute that had begun after a football game several days earlier. According to her account, there had been a fight involving the children following the game, and people connected to that earlier dispute came to the family’s residence while the barbecue was underway. Another confrontation developed before shots were fired. Police initially described the shooting as possibly connected to an earlier fight or disagreement, while an arrest warrant later indicated that allegations of bullying were part of the circumstances investigators were examining.
Two of Ja’marion’s female relatives were also wounded in the barrage. Police reports identified them as women in their late teens and late 30s, although published accounts differed slightly regarding their exact ages. Both survived and were hospitalized. Family accounts reported that the younger victim was pregnant and had been struck multiple times. Authorities have continued investigating the sequence of events and the roles of everyone who was present when the confrontation escalated into gunfire.
Two days after the killings, DeKalb County police arrested 18-year-old Julian Ellis in connection with the shooting. Ellis was taken into custody on September 22 and booked into the DeKalb County Jail. Police charged him with two counts of felony murder in connection with the deaths of Ja’marion and Ja’Khi, along with six counts of aggravated assault stemming from the shooting and the other people endangered or wounded during the attack. Investigators publicly identified Ellis as the accused shooter, but the charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
Authorities have not announced that anyone else has been charged in connection with the killings. Investigators have continued working to establish the complete circumstances surrounding the earlier dispute, the confrontation at the apartment complex, and the shooting itself. Ellis was scheduled to make his first court appearance on September 24, 2026; available reporting at the time did not yet provide a final account of that proceeding or indicate that the case had advanced to trial.
The deaths devastated the boys’ family and their school communities. Ja’marion and Ja’Khi were remembered by their mother as brothers who loved football, worked hard in school, enjoyed spending time with their siblings and relatives, and had earned places on their schools’ principal’s lists. Their schools arranged grief support for students and staff as the investigation continued. What began as a family barbecue ended with two brothers dead, two relatives wounded, and a teenager facing murder and aggravated-assault charges as DeKalb County detectives worked to determine precisely how an earlier conflict escalated into the fatal shooting.
