ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — A family is sharing their grief after the tragic murder of 65-year-old Gregory Hill, who was shot and killed outside a Royal Oak apartment complex last week.
Hill was working as a part-time maintenance worker at Devon Park Apartments when he was shot multiple times by a tenant who was being evicted. Police say Hill was not involved in the altercation that led to the shooting.
Watch Brett Kast's video report below:
"I'm just going to miss talking to him because he was the only one I would call," said Tonya Jordan, Hill's sister.
For Jordan, the tragedy that unfolded Thursday in Royal Oak is unthinkable. While residents knew the victim as Greg the maintenance worker, she knew him as her brother.
"Our favorite line in our text: 'Hey, my sister Tonya,' and I'd be like 'hey my brother, Greg.' That'd be our opening line to each other," Jordan said.
Hear more from Tonya Jordan in the video player below:
The two spoke often and were even planning a cruise together when Jordan received a devastating call from Hill's daughter.
"She said that they shot him, and I said 'they shot him? What do you mean? Where is he? What's going on?' She's like, 'He didn't make it' and I was like 'what? He didn't make it?'" Jordan said.
According to prosecutors, Hill was working on an outside door at the complex when 32-year-old Nathaniel Rockwell, who was being evicted for multiple incidents involving firearms, began arguing with management and then with a tenant in the parking lot. Witnesses say Rockwell suddenly grabbed a gun from his car and walked toward Hill.
"Why would you attract your attention to him when all he was doing was fixing the door? He was a maintenance man," Jordan said.
Police noted that Hill was unarmed and wasn't directly involved in the dispute. Prosecutors say Rockwell shot him 11 times, some at close range.
Watch our coverage from the day of the shooting below:
"None of us can close our eyes at night because we're picturing what he went through, we're picturing it," Jordan said. “He didn't do anything to deserve this at all."
Hill had just celebrated his 31st wedding anniversary last month and leaves behind a wife and two daughters. Jordan says he was a retired General Motors worker who wanted to stay busy.
“He's not the type to just sit idle," Jordan said. "He was a part-time maintenance man — something for him to do, something for him to help people."
That helping hand is one of the things Jordan will miss most about her brother, along with his jokes, his laugh and his presence that many in Royal Oak say they too will deeply miss.
"Great husband, great father, great brother, great friend, great uncle — he didn't deserve this at all," Jordan said. "We just wanna make sure justice is going to be done. It was just so senseless and he didn't deserve this at all."
Over the weekend, Rockwell was charged with six felonies including first-degree murder. He was denied bond and remains in Oakland County Jail.
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