‘He’s just very kind and gentle and family-focused’: Victim’s brother shares life, legacy

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Another family is sharing their pain, after losing a loved one in a deadly hit-and-run Monday that Lincoln Police said was done on purpose.

Chris Karmazin was one of the victims, his brother Garrett Karmazin said that his family lost the man who held them together.

Garrett said there are a few things Chris loved in life: being outdoors, animals and being a father.

“He gravitated toward fatherhood naturally,” Garrett said. “And so that just became his world. And they just revolved around him. More so than anything else.”

Chris leaves behind three children, 24-year-old Sehven, 12-year-old Lydia, and 6-year-old Laurel, as well as his wife Aylin.

“He’s just very kind and gentle and family-focused,” Garrett said.

Chris also loved working with his hands, which is how he ended up on the maintenance team at The Lodge Apartments.

“Always building, tinkering,” Garrett said. “And so he can easily see something, take it apart, put it back together. It’s just the way his mind works.”

Garrett said police came into his work Monday to tell him his brother had been killed. He said since then the family is still reeling.

“It’s really unfathomable. You really can’t fathom it. And we’re really, we feel deeply the loss, but we haven’t really, you know, we’re still processing - it was so quick,” Garrett said.

The community has come together to support the family through a GoFundMe. Garrett said supporting three children on a single income will be a shift for the family.

“We’re just really shocked at how much love is poured in and how much support everyone has given,” Garrett said.

He said more than that, losing the glue of their family, their father, will be a challenge for his children for the rest of their lives.

“The biggest thing is the giant hole that he’ll leave behind - giant,” Garrett said. “He was, like I said, his whole family, I believe I, his whole family kind of revolved around him because he was the glue.”

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