Daquavius Royalston was 16 and a junior at Frederick Douglass High School when he was shot and killed at about 3:20 a.m. on September 1, 2025. He had been returning to his family’s home on Mulberry Row in southeast Atlanta when the fatal shot was fired as he entered the residence. The shooter was Quinterrious Kyson Turner, the 28-year-old boyfriend of Daquavius’s mother, who lived in the house and shared a three-year-old child with her. Turner later said he mistook Royalston for an intruder and fled the scene, leaving neighbors to report a chaotic scene and a woman’s frantic screams.

Family and friends remembered Daquavius, known as D-Litty, as a talented, smart, and kind young man who wanted to be a musical artist and even designed his own line of t-shirts that were worn at a vigil in his honor. As this remains an active homicide, anyone with information about the shooting is asked to come forward.