Third Person Arrested In 2025 Fontava Homicide: Police

BETHESDA-CHEVY CHASE, MD — Justin Michael Green Collins, a 25-year-old from Silver Spring, was the third person arrested in connection with a 2025 fatal shooting, police said.

The Montgomery County Police said in a release that Collins was arrested Tuesday in Washington, D.C.'s District Heights area after he was stopped for a separate incident.

Collins, who remains in custody in the district, is facing first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and firearm-related charges. He was also charged with handgun possession offenses in a separate case related to his initial Tuesday arrest.

The Silver Spring man is accused in a fatal shooting case that dates back to Sept. 25, 2025, at the North Bethesda home of 29-year-old Akwalabeng Fontava.

Police said Fontava was pronounced dead inside his home, and that a man and a woman who had been in the home had been kidnapped and later released the same day.

While the man had been released in Silver Spring, the woman was found at the Westfield Montgomery Mall with Sheldon Milan Boykins, a 37-year-old from Hyattsville. Boykins was charged with two kidnapping counts and firearms-related offenses.

Neither of the two persons kidnapped were identified by police.

A second individual tied to the incident, 18-year-old Joshua Carter, was arrested in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Oct. 8. Carter is facing first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of armed robbery.

Both Boykins and Carter remain held without bond at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit while they await trial.

Police have not said what prompted the fatal interaction between the four individuals.

The case also saw Collins' mother arrested and charged for financially helping her son while he was "on the run," according to police. Shatym Neko Sanderson, 46, was released from custody in January on a $5,000 unsecured personal bond.