Florida Waffle House victim Craig Brewer's sister asks for prayers — for suspect's family

Is was a shopping excursion Monique Ross says she wishes she never had to take, a trip to a men's department store to buy her big brother's funeral clothes.

"He wasn't a shirt-and-tie type of a person," she said of Craig "Red" Brewer, the 41-year-old good Samaritan police say was gunned down at a Waffle House early Sunday in Gainesville, Florida, while handing out $20 bills and paying for the meals of strangers.

Ross, 37, picked out a long-sleeve knitted Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, a pair of matching slacks, both in her brother's favorite color, blue. She delivered the ensemble to an undertaker on Wednesday afternoon and later struggled through tears as she discussed with ABC News her sibling's generosity and his devotion to the children he leaves behind, an 11-month-old daughter and a 2-year-old son who keeps asking for his father.

Police arrested Ezekiel Hicks, 25, on murder charges early Sunday in the death of Brewer at a Waffle House, just a few miles west of the University of Florida.

Alachua County Sheriff's Office officials said the restaurant's surveillance camera captured an altercation between the two. Witnesses said the victim was arguing with a female acquaintance of the suspect, who was reportedly upset because Brewer's hospitality didn't include her.

Hicks intervened and got into a physical altercation with Brewer, authorities said. At some point, Hicks left the restaurant, retrieved a 9mm Glock pistol, and returned and shot the Brewer in the head, according to the sheriff's office.

Praying for alleged killer's family

Ross said that as a devout Christian, she holds no hate in her heart for Hicks.

"I don't hold any grudges against him. I'm not angry with him," she told ABC News. "People have been sending their prayers and condolences to our family. So I asked them to pray for his [Hick's] family as well. His family has lost him because I'm sure he's going to be in prison for a while. Just pray for him because ... God is love and we can't hold any hate in our hearts for people. I don't."

She said if she could say anything to her brother's alleged killer it would be, "People have to make better choices."

"We can say, 'Put the guns down,' but it starts with the individual to start making better choices," she said. "Just think before you react.'"

She said her brother worked as an installer for a tiling company in Gainesville and that it didn't surprise her to hear he was picking up the tickets of other customers' moments before his life was taken.

"That's the type of person he was," she said of Brewer, a member of the Pentecostal Praise and Deliverance Church in Gainesville. "Anytime he walked in a store, or anytime he was at a place or in a neighborhood, wherever he was, he would say, 'Oh, I'll pay for this,' or 'I got it.'"

She said she had taken three of her four children, and Brewer's two kids, 2-year-old Corrian and 11-month-old Caylin, and their mother on vacation to SeaWorld in Orlando over the weekend. She said she had been in contact with her brother via FaceTime several times on Saturday.

Checking her cell phone, she said the last phone call they shared was at 6:53 p.m. that evening.

She said the "worst phone call I've ever gotten" came from her son, Manuel Norman, at 3:13 a.m. on Sunday.

"My son was standing right next to him when he was shot," Ross said of her 19-year-old son, who she says Brewer treated like his own son. "He was screaming at the top of his lungs, saying, 'Mama! Mama! They shot him! They shot him!'

"At first, I couldn't understand him because he was so hysterical. I said, 'They shot who?' He said, 'Uncle Red, he's been shot,'" she continued. "I mean, I was just frantic. We jumped up and immediately got straight in the car and drove home."

'Daddy! Daddy'

Since then, she said hundreds of her brother's friends and admirers have streamed through her home to express their condolences and share how her brother touched their hearts.

"People have been like, 'Oh, he helped me with my kids,' 'he was a great encourager,'" Ross said. "He was a mentor to younger men, like my son's age."

She said there have also been incredibly heartbreaking moments, watching her nephew, Corrian, longing for his father.

"He's has been asking for him repeatedly," Ross said of the toddler.

She said her brother liked to fix up old cars, and play his music loud. She said on Sunday evening, the little boy heard music coming from a car in front of her house.

"He heard music," she said of Corrian. "He jumped up on the couch and opened the curtains and said, 'Daddy! Daddy!' And the whole house, we just broke down and cried."

She said she and her family are still finalizing arrangements for her brother's funeral, scheduled for April 20.

Asked if it will be held at the church she attends and her brother was a member of, she said, "That church is too small for his funeral."

ABC News Karma Allen contributed to this report.