MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — A 21-year-old man was shot and killed in front of his home on Baker Street Tuesday afternoon.
Muskegon Heights Police were called out to the 2200 block of Baker Street around 2:35 p.m. Wednesday after getting a call about an unresponsive man in a yard.
That man was Demarcus Franklin, the father of a ten-month-old baby girl named Winter.
Once they arrived, they found Franklin had been shot.
He was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 3:23 p.m.
READ MORE: Muskegon Heights PD investigating deadly shooting, no suspects
“I just got off of work, got a few minutes of sleep for my next job. I just got the call and came over here,” Demarco Franklin, Demarcus's father, told FOX 17 Thursday afternoon.
“We all loved him, so we are grieving, but I look at it now, like, he can finally rest.”
Franklin had three older sisters, including Dominique Franklin.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Dominique said Thursday.
“I guess it will hit me once I need him. … He was my main person to go to, to help me out with my kids.”
Demarcus was the baby of the family in most regards — the youngest child, the youngest grandchild and the youngest cousin.
He is described as loving, humble and full of joy.
“He liked sports, loved to laugh, make jokes, that was him. I mean, he was just a lovable cat,” his dad said.
Demarcus just turned 21 in July.
He grew up loving sports of all kinds, but focused his personal efforts on basketball.
“He was a good dad. He loved her; she loved him,” Winter’s mom, Storm Fletcher, told FOX 17.
“He was a good person; he really was. He was everything for us.”
Storm says she can already see Demarcus in Winter’s features.
His family knows Demarcus will live on in the impact he’s made on the world, in his family and in his daughter.
His father adds, “We didn't call him ‘old man’ for nothing; he took care of everybody like he was a grown man. He was just too grown for his time.”
