A fight that started over a domestic dispute in a DeKalb County apartment complex ended with a man dead in a breezeway, and now the man convicted of pulling the trigger is headed to prison for life. A DeKalb County jury found 27-year-old Decatur resident Azavier Lilly guilty on August 28, 2026, of malice murder and related charges in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Rashad Walker at the Candler Forest Apartments in unincorporated Decatur.
According to CBS Atlanta, the March 6, 2025, shooting began after Walker and his girlfriend got into a fight that turned physical and drew a crowd, prompting the girlfriend to head to a friend's apartment to cool off. DeKalb County police officers were called to the Candler Road complex after reports of a person shot, and they found Walker lying in the breezeway with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators later identified Lilly as one of four men who witnessed the fight and then attacked Walker, with Lilly accused of opening fire during the assault.
Ballistics Evidence Pointed to an Untraceable Weapon
Crime scene investigators recovered four 9mm shell casings near Walker's body in the breezeway connecting the apartment units, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Investigators never recovered the actual handgun, but a Georgia Bureau of Investigation technician testified at trial that ballistics testing on the recovered bullets confirmed they had been fired from a so-called ghost gun, a firearm built from unmarked, unserialized components and incapable of being traced through normal law enforcement databases.
That distinction mattered because it explained how prosecutors secured a conviction without ever holding the murder weapon in evidence. The gun's untraceable nature fits into a broader statewide pattern; law enforcement agencies recovered and traced 22,673 crime firearms in Georgia during 2023, with 9mm handguns ranking as the top caliber recovered statewide, per ATF trace data reported by Everytown Research & Policy. Nationally, ghost guns have also drawn public attention.
Conviction Carries a Full List of Firearm Charges
Beyond malice murder, the DeKalb County jury also convicted Lilly of two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to a DeKalb County District Attorney statement reported by Public Technologies. The felon-in-possession charge indicates Lilly was already legally barred from having any firearm before the shooting occurred.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorneys Andrew Turner and Ellie Harris of the DeKalb County District Attorney's Homicide and Gangs Unit, with support from District Attorney Investigator Brent Minton and lead detective Kearney of the DeKalb County Police Department, per the same statement. Lilly was taken into custody in connection with the case, according to The Georgia Gazette.
Life Sentence Comes With a Three-Decade Wait
A DeKalb County Superior Court judge sentenced Lilly to life in prison with the possibility of parole. But under Georgia law, that possibility is a distant one. Per the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, any person convicted of murder committed on or after July 1, 2006, who receives a life sentence with parole eligibility must serve a mandatory minimum of 30 years before a parole board will even consider the case, a requirement that doubled from 14 years under state legislation passed that year.
The Candler Forest Apartments complex was the site of the fatal shooting described above.
Broader Ghost Gun Crackdown Underway
The weapon used against Walker also reflects broader attention to ghost guns beyond DeKalb County courtrooms. The specific details of any federal rule or Supreme Court ruling are not established here.
It remains unclear whether the three other men identified as attacking Walker face any pending charges connected to his death, as officials have not released further details on the status of those individuals in connection with the case.
