‘We're Still Devastated. I Don't Think Much Has Changed Except Time' – Andre Emmett's Family Speaks Out Following Arrests

If pictures could talk, Andre Emmett's family says his would speak mostly about how much he loved his little girls.

Kennedy and Zara will have moments captured in a single frame. And they'll have memories passed down from relatives, like their uncle Jorge Centeno, who remembers giving Emmett tips about fatherhood.

"I remember like it was just the other day. I showed him how to hold Kennedy when she was a couple days old," said Centeno.

But the girls won't have him in the flesh.

"She misses him. She asks me if we can go to the store and buy a ladder, so we can go up to the stars to see her daddy," said Holly Hayman, the mother of his oldest daughter.

Police have arrested two men in connection to Emmett's death, believed to be the men seen on surveillance taking Emmett's jewelry then chasing and shooting him as he ran away. 29-year-old Michael Lucky and 32-year-old Keith Johnson are each being held on $500,000 bonds.

"The biggest question is why," said Centeno. "He was my brother-in-law, he was my wife's older brother and she looked up to him like any sister would to her brother."

As this family waits for justice, the pain sometimes festers.

"The thought that they would still shoot at him and take his life. That hurts," said Emmett's sister, Sasha Emmett. "We're still devastated. I don't think much has changed except time."

Still, a glimpse of joy comes when they think about who Emmett was.

A man who they say would've loved to be right here, spending time his family.

"Yes, he's a basketball player. Yes, he's an elite athlete. He's a master of his craft. But as a man he's a great father. A provider," said Sasha Emmett. "He just didn't deserve to be taken away from us."

Contact Us