There was a strugle for food when his mom was adddictied to crack. So his mom went arround the building asking people for food. That diddn't work, so Andre went and asked his uncle for food. His uncle took him on his first robberie. He was good, and he was going to put his street skills to use.
The robberies of the token booths, stores, and drug dealers were getting too serious for Andre. ""I don't want to leave my daughter. My daughter needs me." And this was like a big-time dude around that block, too. So I made him take his clothes off, and I made him walk outside. It got to point where it wasn't about the money anymore; it was about the rush."
Then his mom got off the crack, and was hospitalized. The crack had taken too much toll on her body, and she was hospitalized. It was up to Andre and his sister to make the decision for her to live or not..
"My mother was in the hospital. She was on the respirator. She wasn't breathing at all -- no movement, no nothing, she was just there. They left the decision up to me and my sister to see if we wanted to pull the plug on her. And that night she passed. She knew that the decision was hard for us, so she made the decision herself."
The death of their mother took a huge toll on them. Nobody to take care of them. Andre did not leave the house for two weeks. But one day, his sister brought a girl home. Ebony. Ebony was Andre's new escape. Ebony is Andre's new happiness.
