One Year After a Fatal Shooting and the Heartache Continues - FOX 42: Omaha News, Sports and Weather; kptm.com |

Franque Thompson

OMAHA (KPTM)- One year ago today, a life was taken.  And the wounds still aren't healed.  Police say 25-year-old Kris Winters was killed in his home after five people broke in intending to rob him, but shot him instead.  For loved ones, the thought is still hard to bare.

"I love him.  I just feel like it's something I never told him when he was alive.  It's just something you never tell your friends, every day that you love them, but you don't really know how much you're going to miss them until you don't have the option to ever see them again," said Kris's best friend, Alysia Thomas.

Winters was found in his home near 51^st and U streets.  Family still have one question lingering in their mind…why?

"I still feel like it's really unfair, I feel like no justice has been served…I feel like he was taken away for nothing," said Thomas.

With the first of several trials starting in just a few days, loved ones say they hope Winters gets justice.

"I definitely don't think that any of them should be back out on the street, any of them.  Including the girl that set the stuff up," said Thomas.

Fighting back tears, Winters' younger sister Victoria, says she never got the chance to have the brother-sister relationship she longs for now.

"I just want to see his smile and hear his laugh," said Victoria Winters.

"I know she cries at night, she cries for her brother.  That was her main man, everywhere she was…he cared too much about her," said long-time neighbor, Nikki Nielsen.

Loved ones say it isn't just days like today where they long for him to be here.

"Every time there's a family gathering, there's an empty spot where he's supposed to be.  Like, every time there's a Christmas, there's presents, there just a spot where he's not ever going to be again," said Thomas.

But they want to remember him most for his genuine spirit and kind heart.

"Just genuine, you know?  You don't have just genuine people.  Somebody judging you? He never judged nobody, he was always there, first one there to help you.  He never even had to ask twice," said Nielsen.

Though his death still brings heartache to many, loved ones say they are proud of the gentleman he grew up to be.

"He stood up and been the man that his dad would have wanted him to be….for his family, for his mother, for his sister," said Nielsen.

Jury selection will begin Monday, and the first trial of the case will follow on Tuesday.