ST. LOUIS — Andre Walker was a son, a father, an uncle and a lot of import roles in a lot of lives. The day he was shot and killed a lot of people saw it and had a decision to make.
"I remember his laughter, his smile, his jokes," recalled Walker's mother, Lenna Walker-Gilmore, with a laugh. "Andre was just beautiful people.”
Walker was supporting another family the day he was taken from his.
Standing outside a wake, prosecutors said a young man he'd known for years pulled up next to him and shot him 23 times.
"This was a heinous crime," said Walker-Gilmore. "It was really an assassination."
Family members said it was all over what should have been a simple argument between Walker and his shooter's mother.
"People think that it has to involve drugs or money, this was not that situation," said Walker's cousin Serena Wilson-Griffin.
Walker's family said the crime was a "message."
The shooter, then 22-year-old Dominique Kemper, was caught and charged.
But the messages continued. Intimidation, prosecutors said, meant to keep witnesses from testifying.
"Witnesses or potential witnesses in this case were shot at, homes were shot at," said Wilson-Griffin.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said violent crimes often go unsolved because "people are afraid to come forward."
But not in this case.
"As a family we didn't have the luxury of being afraid," said Wilson-Griffin. "We knew that we had to seek justice. And we knew that meant if we died in the process, we met we prayed, and we accepted that.”
Thursday, with the family's testimony, a jury convicted Walker's shooter of first-degree murder. And they credit the prosecutor's officer for helping them overcome the intimidation.
In the circuit attorney's office, "you have a team that will fight with you probably more than you can fight by yourself." said Wilson-Griffin.
She said not just one victim's advocate but an entire department within the circuit attorney's office worked with them through the trial, including providing police protection.
Now with justice, Walker's family said they not only mourn his death, but the loss his shooter's family feels, too. A family they had known and called friends for decades.