DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The man accused of stabbing his 14-year-old niece and another man to death abused drugs and was angry at the people trying to help him, his sister said.
Kimberly Ward was getting ready for work Sunday morning in her Decatur apartment on West Trinity Place when she heard her brother Royce Stewart arguing with her fiancé over a car.
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When she checked on what was happening, she says Stewart was holding a knife toward 35-year-old Manuel De Jesus Franco.
Stewart overpowered his sister and De Jesus Franco and stabbed the man before driving off with his sister's car.
When Ward went to check on her daughter, Shykia Ward-Reese, she had been stabbed to death in her bed, she said.
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"Everything happened so fast," Ward said. "I just don’t understand. I can't get my child back. I want her back so bad. I want my family back."
Stewart hid until the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Unit arrested him Monday afternoon off Covington Highway.
Ward says she will miss her daughter's positivity, her smile, and her ambitions of being an Olympic track star.
"She was a great child," Ward said. "Everybody loved her. She never wanted to talk negative."
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Ward had let her brother stay with her for a couple of days in hopes of getting help for him. He has a criminal history dating back to 1999, and spent time in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2005.
"Manuel was going to talk to him that morning to see how we could help him get on track," she said.
Stewart had been using drugs and appeared to become a different person at times, his family said. But his relatives did not expect he would become violent toward members of his own family.
[READ: Police arrest man accused of stabbing, killing teen and another man]
"He's still my brother, "Ward said. "He was just lost."
Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday night to pay their respects to Shykia, a student-athlete at Renfroe Middle School.
Kimberly Ward says she's thankful to the community for honoring her daughter and helping the single mother find a new home for her and her 7-year-old daughter, who will grow up without a big sister.
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $20,000 for her.
"Just them talking about what kind of person she was, was very uplifting," Ward said.
A funeral is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Hands of The Lord International Church on Austin Drive in Decatur.
Cox Media Group
