San Leandro family looking for answers 14 years after young man killed

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KTVU) - The family of Elzie Winston Jr., who was shot and killed 14 years ago in Alameda County, is asking for witnesses to come forward to help solve the case. 

The Alameda County Sheriff's Department says it has at least one person of interest, but they need help building a case. The victim's parents want answers and justice. 

"He was my right-hand man.  He went everywhere I went," said Elzie Winston Senior, who shares the same name with his son. 

This  week is particularly painful for Winston and his wife Sandra, the mother of Elzie Junior.  

"One minute he's here and then instantly,  he's removed from the planet. How do you adjust to that?" asked Winston.  

He says he had a close relationship with his son from the start as Elzie Junior grew up in East Oakland. 

Father and son worked together in the family janitorial business.

The 25-year-old was also a father to a young girl. 

Then, abruptly on June 18, 2005, Junior was killed outside a sports bar in unincorporated San Leandro, the night before Father's Day. 

"It's not something you want to wake up to everyday.  Father's Day makes it even worse," said Winston.
According to dad, Elzie Junior was celebrating a friend's return from Iraq at the sports bar.

"I was one of the investigators on the case," said Sgt.  Ray Kelly with Alameda County Sheriff's department.  He  was a homicide detective at the time. He recalled vividly responding to the scene. 

He said Elzie Junior got into an altercation with another man and that man followed Elzie  out of the bar and shot him in the head. 

"This was a very brazen killing in a public place, in front of a lot of people," said Sgt. Kelly, "No one had the courage to step forward because they feared retaliation."

Now, the family hopes the passage of time will encourage witnesses to come forward and help ease their pain. 

"It's a journey you just don't want to go on or be a part of," said Winston.  

 He tells KTVU Elzie Junior wrote a 30 page letter to his daughter, when she was born, to help give her guidance in life. 
She was three years old  when she lost her father.  She's now 17. 

"She expressed pain.  She's had to go see a psychiatrist as a teenager because of the absence of her father," said Winston. . 

"To this day, I still hold on to faith.  No matter how long, I'm not going to give up," said Sandra Winston, Elzie Junior's mother.  

  The Winstons have moved out of the Bay Area.
They say they will not rest until they get justice for their son.