On the evening of April 29, 2024, 11-year-old Zander Whatley was struck by a stray bullet inside his home on Ruth Way in Douglasville, Georgia. The shooting occurred at about 11:00 p.m.; Zander was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead. He was just shy of his twelfth birthday.

Zander was a fifth-grade student at Hal Hutchens Elementary School and served on the Student Council. Family remembered him as an energetic boy who enjoyed soccer, baseball and had recently finished a season of football. He loved singing, TikTok, school and spending time with family and friends, and his mother, Shareeda Alexander, said she discovered him after a 911 call from her 14-year-old son.

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation with help from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force. Authorities say the shooting was connected to a dispute involving one of Zander’s older siblings and that Zander was an unintended victim. Four arrests had been announced by local officials as the inquiry continued.

Did anyone in the Douglasville area know Zander or have information that could help explain what happened that night?