Melishia Carter knows that, somewhere out there, there’s a white Chevrolet Equinox missing its grill and its driver’s side rear view mirror. Its front bumper has significant damage, and its model year is likely between 2004 and 2008.
Someone behind its steering wheel, Carter knows, killed her brother.
“We’re just asking anybody if they know anything, if they’ve seen anything, if they heard anything, come forward,” Carter said Wednesday, surrounded by family members near the southwest Atlanta intersection of Campbellton and Fairburn roads.
It’s the same spot where their loved one, 40-year-old Milton “Eggie” Boykin, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on April 27 — and the same spot where they’ve handed out fliers begging for answers ever since.
“He didn’t deserve to be hit like that and just left in the street like an animal,” Carter said.
An Atlanta Police Department incident report said Boykin was crossing Campbellton Road on foot at about 11:20 p.m. that night when a vehicle struck him and drove off. Boykin died after being transported to Grady Memorial Hospital.
A diagram showed the point of impact near the middle of the five-lane road.
Gathered between a Shell station and Captain Hooks Fish and Chicken on Wednesday afternoon, another batch of fliers in-hand, Boykin’s family said he was homeless and struggled with addiction — but that he was kind, loving and as generous as his situation would possibly allow.
“He wasn’t perfect by far,” Boykin’s son, Jermaunte Lamar, said. “But he was mine.”
Boykin’s family said they’ve gotten some tips from friends and potential witnesses via social media, but it’s hard to say how credible they are. They’re hoping that if they spread the word far enough, someone who knows something — an acquaintance of the driver of a suddenly missing Equinox, an auto body shop working on one, the driver him or herself — will come forward.
Eggie Boykin’s family will bury him Thursday at Mt. Harmony Cemetery but, until they get answers, they’ll continue to hand out fliers featuring his photo and a blunt, pleading message: “Do you know who ran over me?”
“He would always say, ‘Hey beautiful,’” Boykin’s mother, Brenda Morris, said Wednesday. “… I’m gonna miss him. And it hurts. It’s hurts so bad. I’ve never felt a pain like this before.”
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Atlanta police at 404-765-2808.
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