Third Suspect Wanted in Connection to North Bethesda Homicide Arrested

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Gaithersburg, MD – Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Major Crimes Division, Homicide Unit have a third suspect in custody in connection to a September 2025 homicide.

On March 17, 2026, MCPD detectives assigned to the U.S. Marshals Task Force, along with 1st District Special Assignment Team (SAT) officers, located the third suspect, 25-year-old Justin Michael Green Collins, at a residence in District Heights and stopped him in Washington, D.C., where he was taken into custody.

Collins, of Silver Spring, remained outstanding following the shooting death of 29-year-old Akwalabeng Fontava inside Fontava’s North Bethesda apartment on Sunday, September 21, 2025.

Following the shooting, a man and a woman inside the apartment were allegedly kidnapped and later released. Sheldon Milan Boykins was arrested that same day.

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The second suspect, Joshua Carter, was apprehended in Fayetteville, North Carolina, at a family member’s residence. He was extradited to Montgomery County on October 24, 2025.

Collins’s mother, 46-year-old Shatym Neko Sanderson, of Silver Spring, was arrested on November 12, 2025, and charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Homicide detectives determined that Collins’s mother helped him financially while he was on the run.

Justin Collins is currently being held in Washington, D.C., on handgun possession charges related to his arrest on March 17.

Sanderson was released in January of 2026 on a $5,000 unsecured personal bond.

Both Boykins and Carter are currently being held without bond at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit, where they are awaiting trial.

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