A 2014 graduate of Lithonia High School, Marcaysia Dawkins was focused on her next goal.
She planned to join the Navy, and was getting herself physically fit for the challenge. In the meantime, she was working at a daycare center. Her Facebook photos show a smiling young woman in a sparkling, light blue strapless gown for the prom.
Now, her family is preparing for the 19-year-old’s funeral. Dawkins was shot and killed Sunday morning at a DeKalb County bus stop, according to police. A relative said Dawkins was taking the bus to the gym when she was robbed of her purse and a few dollars and fatally shot.
“She was a great kid. And she did not deserve none of this,” Mia Jones, Dawkins’ aunt, told Channel 2 Action News. “You couldn’t just take what you needed to take and keep it moving. You just had to… you had to kill her.”
Investigators believe robbery was the motive, and that Dawkins did not know the man who approached her, police said Monday.
Dawkins was found at 11 a.m. Sunday at the MARTA stop in the 5900 block of Fairington Road in Lithonia, according to Capt. Stephen Fore with DeKalb police. She was in critical condition when taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she later died, according to police.
A suspect had not been identified Monday. But detectives were able to obtain surveillance video from a local business that captured the shooting, Fore said. MARTA police are also assisting in the investigation.
In surveillance video shown on Channel 2, a man can be seen crossing the street and standing next to Dawkins at the bus stop. The two speak for a few minutes before she is shot after a brief struggle, the video shows. The man appears to take something and run away.
Dawkins had moved to Lithonia two years ago to escape violence in Pittsburgh, her family said. Yet here, she was a victim, leaving her family wanting to find the person responsible for her death.
“If there’s anybody out there that know something about this, please call and let us know something,” Jones said.
