‘We’re not gonna let him go like that’: Siblings of hit-and-run victim seek justice

YORK, S.C. — One week after a York man was hit and killed by a car that didn’t stop, his siblings are speaking out to Channel 9.

They’re pleading for someone to come forward if they know who killed their brother, Nikki Dunnavant.

A colorful memorial stands where the 24-year-old took his last breath. It’s a moment his brother and sister still struggle with.

“We’re getting to where we’re accepting it,” said Nikki Dunnavant’s sister, Brandi Faile. “But how do you accept losing someone that meant the world to you?”

“It’s still hard for us to bear. We still think he’s gonna walk through that door and pop one of us in the head for all the stuff we’ve been going through,” said brother Lucas Dunnavant. “Because that’s how he is, he didn’t want to see us sad.”

Nikki Dunnavant was walking on Railroad Avenue around 2 a.m. last Wednesday. It appeared he was on the correct side of the road and using his cell phone as a flashlight.

York police said a car clipped him and kept going. Nikki Dunnavant managed to walk a few yards further down the shoulder before collapsing in the road.

Police said a second car, possibly a silver sedan, ran over him. That driver also didn’t stop.

The area is wooded and dark, and no one has come forward.

“We’re not gonna let him go like that. We’re not just gonna give up and say, ‘Oh well, he’s dead, there’s nothing more we can do.’ We’re gonna fight until something comes up or we get answers, somewhere,” Faile told Channel 9.

“If you knew him like we did, you’d be doing the same thing right now for him, trying to get justice for him,” said Lucas Dunnavant.

York police have no new leads and hope someone saw something on that early June 9 morning and will speak up.

That’s all Dunnavant’s brother and sister want too.

“I know he’s at peace and I’m trying to be there too, but it’s hard when I don’t know what happened,” Faile said.

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