Slain Burger King victim Kristal Bayron-Nieves mourned as ‘happy, genuine soul’
The teenage Burger King cashier fatally gunned down during a late-night robbery at her Harlem eatery was remembered at her wake Tuesday as a “genuine soul.”
Kristal Bayron-Nieves, 19, was senselessly shot and killed Jan. 9 during a botched robbery, just weeks after she took the job to buy a car and help her mom pay the bills.
“We’re devastated,” her cousin, Melissa Quiles, told The Post.
“She didn’t deserve this at all,” Quiles said. “We just want justice.”
The slain teen’s friend, 16-year-old Nairelys Figueroa, said Bayron-Nieves was a hard worker — but also happy-go-lucky.
“She was a very happy, genuine soul,” Figueroa said. “She was always happy and wanted to change for the better. … She wanted to travel the world.”
Bayron-Nieves was just three weeks into the nightshift at the fast-food eatery when police said Winston Glynn, a 30-year-old former employee at the restaurant, stormed in around 1 a.m., demanded money and shot the teen before fleeing.
Cops said there were just $100 in the cash register.
The teen’s mom said her daughter, worried about safety in the neighborhood at night, had sought to switch to an earlier shift.
“She was saving to buy a car that Friday,” family friend Natalie Pagan said of the victim, who was killed days before she could purchase the vehicle. “But longer term, she was saving money for school.”
Bayron-Nieves’ body will be flown to her native Puerto Rico on Thursday for a funeral scheduled for Friday, her family said. She will be buried Saturday.
Jet Blue will transport the body and relatives at no expense.
A gofundme.com page has so far raised nearly $43,000 for the family.
