Tears mix with laughter as hundreds attend campus memorial for slain UK student

Just a few hours before he was shot and killed early Friday in an apparent robbery, Jonathan Krueger was hanging out with friends on a front porch near the University of Kentucky campus.

David Greis, a UK graduate student, said he and Krueger had been talking that night about something Krueger had done that Greis thought he might have regretted.

"Jonathan immediately said, 'I'm living my life with no regrets,'" Greis recalled.

Instead, Krueger told his friend, he looked at missteps "like a learning experience."

That attitude of living without regrets is one many friends recalled about Krueger when they spoke at a memorial on UK's campus Monday night.

Several hundred people — including faculty, friends, Mayor Jim Gray and Lexington police Chief Mark Barnard — attended the service at Memorial Hall, which was sponsored by the Kentucky Kernel, where Krueger, a junior, worked as photo editor.

"He was a part of so many different groups," said Morgan Eads, editor-in-chief of the independent campus newspaper. "It was important to give all people on campus a chance to come together and remember him. ... share some fun memories, not only sad."

There were tears but plenty of laughter as friends recalled Krueger's irrepressible personality.

"I don't really think Krueg er had a comfort zone," Eads told the crowd.

Kernel sports editor Kevin Erpenbeck remembered road trips with Krueger, his high-pitched singing and how he loved to toss a Frisbee around the Kernel offices.

"What made Krueger so special and so wonderful was the enthusiasm that he brought every day," Erpenbeck said. "He was the joy of the Kernel."

Stepper Toth, who is from Krueger's hometown in Ohio, remembered the big smile on his face the day he received his acceptance letter from the university.

"The way he talked about Kentucky ... how passionate he was about doing photography," she said, voice breaking. "He loved the whole atmosphere."

Toth also recalled Krueg er's role in her first official campus visit to UK.

"He met us inside the parking garage to make sure that we didn't get lost," she said, adding that Krueger had driven her family around Lexington, taken them to lunch and surprised her with tickets to Big Blue Madness.

"He's the reason that I'm here loving life at UK," she said. "I just cannot thank him enough."

Attendees were asked to share photos and write down memories, which would be compiled into a scrapbook for Krueger's family.

"Please keep sharing your Jonathan stories," the family wrote in a statement that was read aloud at the service. "Those stories will keep his spirit alive, and we all know how big that spirit was."

Witzler-Shank Funeral Home in Perrysburg, Ohio, is in charge of funeral arrangements for Krueger. Services will be for his immediate family only.

A celebration of life is planned May 31, but details have not been announced.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 10:56 PM with the headline "Tears mix with laughter as hundreds attend campus memorial for slain UK student."