In the early morning hours of September 1, 2025, the life of 16-year-old Daquavius Royalston was tragically cut short in what has been described as a devastating case of mistaken identity. The male teenager, a junior at Frederick Douglass High School with aspirations of becoming a musical artist, was returning to his family's home on Mulberry Row in southeast Atlanta.
It was a place where he should have been safest, but a fatal error turned it into the scene of his untimely death.
At approximately 3:20 a.m., as Daquavius entered the residence, he was shot and killed. The person who fired the weapon was Quinterrious Kyson Turner, the 28-year-old boyfriend of Daquavius's mother. Turner, who also resided in the home and shared a three-year-old child with the teen's mother, later claimed he mistook Royalston for an intruder. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Turner fled the scene, sparking a search by Atlanta police. The community was left in shock, with neighbors reporting a chaotic scene and hearing a woman's frantic screams.
For months, the case remained a painful open wound for Royalston's family and friends, who remembered him as a talented, smart, and kind young man, affectionately known as 'D-Litty.' He was creative, even designing his own line of t-shirts which his loved ones wore at a vigil held in his honor. The search for the shooter concluded on November 18, 2025, when Quinterrious Turner surrendered to the authorities. He was subsequently taken into custody at the Fulton County Jail.
Turner now faces a series of serious charges, including murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The surrender and arrest of Turner marked a significant turning point in the investigation, bringing a measure of progress to a case that has deeply affected the Atlanta community. The legal proceedings against him are pending as a family continues to mourn the senseless loss of a promising young life.
