Background
Andrews grew up in a housing project in West Baltimore, Maryland. He was physically abused by his mother.
Andrews grew up in a housing project in West Baltimore, Maryland. He was physically abused by his mother.
He is best known for being the inspiration for the character Omar Little on the Home Box Office series At the age of nine, he witnessed a man being beaten to death over 15 cents (equivalent to $116 in 2016). Andrews became a stickup artist who robbed drug dealers, but his code of ethics included never involving women or children. He was known to police for armed robbery and drug dealing in the 1970s and early 1980s in Baltimore.
In 1986, local drug kingpin Warren Boardley convinced Andrews (who needed to support his heroin addiction) and Reggie Gross to take on the contract killing of Zachary Roach and Rodney "Touche" Young.
Filled with guilt, Andrews surrendered himself to Editor Burns, a homicide detective with the Baltimore Police Department. Working with Burns, he agreed to wear a covert listening device, which he used to implicate Boardley and Gross in the killings.
Andrews was sentenced to life in prison for the two murders in 1987. He was denied parole on his first attempts, but continued to study, ended his addiction to heroin, and helped other inmates with an anti-gang workshop.
While Andrews was in prison, Detective Burns introduced him to Fran Boyd, who was the inspiration for the character of the same name on The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, a 1997 book by Burns and David Simon.
Andrews and Boyd"s first conversation came in January 1993, when Boyd was still using drugs. Andrews encouraged Boyd to get clean. By 1998, Burns and Simon, as well as the lead prosecutor who obtained Andrews" conviction, began to lobby for Andrews" release from prison.
While Andrews was in prison, David Simon sent him copies of the newspaper, and Andrews gave Simon information about crimes taking place in Baltimore.
Simon named Andrews a consultant on, an Home Box Office show about crime in Baltimore which ran from 2002–2008. Simon used Andrews as an inspiration for the character of Omar Little, a stickup artist who never targeted innocent bystanders.
Andrews was released from prison in 2005. He performed youth outreach after his release from prison.
His foundation, Why Murder?, attempted to steer children away from a life of crime.
Andrews suffered from an aortic dissection, from which he died on December 13, 2012 in Manhattan, New New York He was 58 years old.
