(WSVN) - A South Florida woman is fighting for justice after her 31-year-old disabled brother was killed. It happened two months ago outside a South Florida convenience store. Karen Hensel has tonight’s 7 Investigates.
The pain is still raw for Nikki Elisias, saying goodbye to her younger brother Don Royster Jr., who died outside this Lauderhill convenience store.
Nikki Elisias, sister: “I feel like all of this stuff could have ended before it even got to the point of my brother losing his life.”
Nikki says Don was born with disabilities so severe, he could barely walk and had trouble speaking.
Nikki Elisias: “That left his mouth being open. It never closed since birth. He can’t stand straight up like me and you. He had to hold onto the wall to stand up, so if you see him, you see him like leaned up against the wall. He’d tell me, ‘Look at me, no girl is ever going to like me. Look at me.'”
She says that’s why Don could be seen here on most days propped up against the wall of the Kwik Stop food store in Lauderhill. A place he had been coming to since he was 15.
Nikki Elisias: “Don gets up at 6 o’clock in the morning like he worked at the store. That was his hangout. That was where he felt like everybody loved him.”
As much as Nikki says he loved the store, it’s also where he found trouble in the past. He was arrested numerous times for trespassing.
Nikki Elisias: “My number was inside of that store for them to call me if anything was going wrong with him. If he was causing any type of trouble because, like I said, I am not going to sugarcoat it like he was the best. He wasn’t.”
Nikki says witnesses told her that Don had been in a spat with someone that day.
Nikki Elisias: “What made May 28 different from any other day that y’all got into an argument? Why on May 28 you felt like it was OK for you to cut my brother like that?”
Before he died, Don turned to his sister one last time, calling and leaving her voicemails.
Nikki Elisias: “I could hear the ambulance on my voicemail. My brother called on my phone. He leaves on my voicemail. He’s calling my name, taking his last breath.”
7 Investigates has requested the police reports, store surveillance video and 911 calls from that day. So far, we have received this partially redacted report noting the victim had “multiple” stab wounds to his chest.
Nikki Elisias: “We want answers. We want to know how it started, when it started. We want to know all that.”
Two months after Don Royster Jr. died here, Lauderhill Police tell 7News they are wrapping up their investigation and will soon turn it over to the Broward State Attorney’s Office. From there, it could go to a grand jury to determine if any charges will be filed.
Nikki Elisias: “It hurt that where he thought he was loved was where his life was taken. I just want to see him standing up there one more time, I guess.”
While Nikki has said her goodbyes to the baby brother she cared for since he was born, she now vows to continue the fight to learn what happened in the final moments of his life.
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