ORLANDO, Fla. – The family of a man who was fatally shot at an Orange County gas station is speaking out and seeking justice.
The sister of 33-year-old Lavon Fuquan Hawkins Jr. is grieving the loss of her right-hand man.
“We lost our mom at a young age, so our goal was always to make sure each other was alright,” Chanay Hawkins-Wade said.
Hawkins was shot Sunday at the Citgo at 719 N. Powers Drive. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later died, deputies said.
Hawkins-Wade said her brother, a New Jersey native, lived in Florida for a few years and was trying to get sober.
“He did just come out of a program. He left the program. He was there for about a good four months,” she said. “He just got restless. People with that kind of mentality, especially when they’re addicted, they just have to go to what they know.”
She was on the phone with Hawkins just minutes before investigators said he was shot. She heard an argument and her brother telling someone to “get away” from him.
“The only thing they said was that people said he was very aggressive to people out there. He’s not like that all the time, so I feel he was on some type of substance,” Hawkins-Wade explained.
Hawkins-Wade, who lives in Tennessee, was trying to get her brother out of Florida.
“That night before he had the argument, I was on the phone with him trying to get him to lay low so when I get paid next week, I can send him the money and get him home to me,” she explained.
As she plans to say her final goodbye, she wants to see the person responsible held accountable.
“The only opportunity I have now is to make sure whoever killed him is gone and is not going to hurt anybody else out on the streets. If he did it once, he did it twice,” she said. “Somebody (saw) something, somebody knows something.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday told News 6 that it had no additional information to share about its investigation.
