Rockdale County sheriff’s investigators had little trouble figuring out who they believe pumped four bullets into 25-year-old Sandino Aikens on Sunday night. The suspect, deputies say, is a 19-year-old neighbor who was shot four years ago by Aikens.
Officers responding to a person shot call on Fieldstone View Lane just after 7 p.m. Sunday found Aikens losing consciousness and shot at least four times, sheriff’s Investigator Mike Camp said in an e-mail.
“Witnesses gave a description of the shooter and told deputies that he walked away from the scene; last seen one street behind Fieldstone View Lane on Country Trace,” Camp said.
“Shortly after investigators arrived and began processing the shooting scene, a suspect was developed after speaking with several witnesses,” Camp said.
Rashad Thompson, 19, of Conyers, was arrested at his home on Country Trace, he said.
Aikens was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with injuries that Camp said appeared to be life-threatening.
“The shooting is still under investigation, but it appears that the shooting was retaliatory in nature,” Camp said.
He said that on Dec. 5, 2008, deputies investigated a shooting in the same subdivision in which Thompson, then 15, was shot in the chest by Aikens, who was then 21.
Aikens pleaded guilty to shooting Thompson in June 2010, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with credit for time already served in the Rockdale County Jail, according to Camp.
“However, he was paroled from state prison in June, 2011,” Camp said. “Early indications are that Thompson was upset that Aikens was already out of prison and shot him in retaliation for being shot by Aikens in 2008.”
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