LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
If you've seen one fireworks stand, then you've seen them all - but it's the people who work there and the stories behind them that make each one unique. At the stand on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Windmill Parkway, the Savelio family is taking a stand.
"What we're trying to do is get cameras in all the gas stations," Margaret Savelio said.
In the summer of 2009, 21 year-old Las Vegas native Greggory Savelio was robbed and shot to death while filling up his car at a gas station in DeKalb, GA.
He was attending college at the time, the first of his siblings to do so.
"He was a loved person - he was definitely a blessing to us," Margaret Savelio, Greggory Savelio's aunt, said.
The shooter escaped. Finding the killer was made more difficult by the fact that no surveillance cameras were installed at the gas station, and it wasn't until another victim was killed at a station with cameras that the suspect was finally caught.
The Savelio family spent the past three years launching a non-profit organization, The Savelio Project, to help pay for cameras at stations that do not have them.
"This is all for him," said Salavalasi Savelio, who was working at the stand Monday. "We don't want him to (have died) in vain. We want him to be remembered for who he was and what he was always standing for - and that's family and safety for everybody."
Coincidentally, the gas station housing the fireworks stand does not have surveillance cameras.
"We thought that every gas station had cameras, or thought they were supposed to have cameras until this happened to our nephew, and we found out it's an option for every gas station to have a camera," Margaret Savelio said.
And this family wants that to change. They've already been successful at getting a resolution passed in DeKalb, GA to require working surveillance cameras at all new gas stations.
"Of course it's a long road to fight, so we're just taking it step by step," Salavalasi Savelio said.
In the five days that the fireworks stand has been open, the family has raised $5,000 to pay for more cameras.
"I decided to help them out and come support - buy some fireworks for the kids, too," said Tavita Moe, who heard about this cause and stopped by Monday afternoon.
The suspect in this case was convicted for the subsequent murder and was sentenced to 255 years in a Georgia prison.
Copyright 2012 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.
Greggory Savelio was 21 when he was robbed and shot to death at a gas station
The Savelio Project fireworks stand is located on Las Vegas Blvd. and Windmill
