A grieving family is asking for help as investigators search for whoever killed a D.C. man and left him in an alley.

Dalonte Jackson, age 35, was brutally beaten in an apartment at The Paradise at Parkside complex. The attack took place on May 24, during Memorial Day weekend.

He was found in an alley off East Capitol Street — a seven minute drive from the apartments on Jay Street in Northeast D.C.

Jackson died five days after the attack. Family members are still hoping for an arrest.

“And then for them to take his body from this area to East Capitol Street and dump him like waste in the garbage?” said Jackson’s grandmother Sharon Jones. “But someone, an angel, appeared there and called 911.”

Relatives believe Jackson was lured to the apartment and never made it home. A disturbing text he sent to a friend before he was killed indicates he knew he was in trouble.

“And he texts them and he basically said, I don’t feel safe, and if something happens, I am with X, Y,” said Jackson’s aunt, Mottdricka Jackson.

After the beating, Jackson was hospitalized and was on life support for several days before he died. His death came just days after celebrating his 35th birthday.

An autopsy determined he died from multiple blunt force injuries.

“His skull was crashed, he was stabbed numerous times, his leg and his arm was broken,” Jones said. “Beat to death.”

Jackson’s family believes he was targeted, and was the victim of a hate crime because he was gay.

D.C. Police, in response to an inquiry from News4, said “There is no evidence to show this was a hate-bias incident.”

The investigation is ongoing. Police are offering $25,000 in reward money for help in solving the case.

“This is horrific to me, the way they killed him. He didn’t deserve that.”

Jackson donated his organs, saving the lives of four people.

Family and friends recently gathered near Jackson’s home at the Mayfair apartment complex to celebrate his life. They’re remembering him as a good person, a good cook, and a barista.

“He was known in Chinatown as “that coffee man,”” Jackson’s aunt said. “He worked for Starbucks and for Petes’, Capital One Arena, and for Starbucks at the Convention Center.”

Workers began removing President Donald Trump’s name from the facade of the Kennedy Center early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove references to Trump from the building and other aspects of the iconic performing arts venue’s operations.

Scaffolding was erected Friday around a section of the building that includes Trump’s name, but shortly after midnight, the Kennedy Center asked a judge to extend the deadline until noon Eastern Time on Saturday because of thunderstorms that had swept through the Washington area, causing a delay.

In the filing, the Kennedy Center offered assurance that the “removal work is presently ongoing” and would “conclude in the early hours of the morning.”

A few hours later, workers began covering the scaffolding with tarps before they eventually started taking down Trump’s name. They packed up and left the site around 3:30 a.m., though the tarps remained, leaving it impossible to determine if all the letters had been removed.

Dozens of people spent hours Friday on the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center taking pictures and cheering occasionally as they broke into chants of “take it down.” Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio board member who sued to have Trump’s name removed from the building, was spotted at one point on the plaza.

Earlier Friday afternoon, a judge rejected a request to pause the court-ordered deadline. The institution appealed that ruling, an effort that was also rebuffed Friday evening.

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. Trump’s name was quickly added to the building.

In his ruling that only Congress could make changes to the Kennedy Center’s name, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The Kennedy Center’s leadership argued in its appeal Friday that the renovation was badly needed and accused the lower court, in terms that seemed similar to Trump’s speech patterns, of interfering in the effort.

“The District Court is not allowing us to close in order to properly fix up and repair the Building, including potentially life threatening structural damage like beams and parking garage ceilings that are rusted, and in serious danger of falling onto people below,” according to the appeal. “Indeed, total collapse!”

Even as the Kennedy Center has fought efforts to remove Trump’s name from the building, it has taken steps to comply with Cooper’s initial ruling.

A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump’s name. And an earlier email sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

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Associated Press journalists Anna Johnson, Mark Sherman and Emily Wang in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.