Alex Kelley was the life of the party, a “true legend,” said his friends at the 26-year-old’s candlelight vigil on Tuesday.
That’s why no one understands why he was shot to death after stepping out on his porch Monday night. His friends say he was alone.
Aaron Audett was actually speaking with one of Kelley’s friends who was in the apartment the night he died.
“Nobody knows all the details,” he said. “I was on the Skype call and I don’t know. No one was out there with him.”
Kelley’s murder was the first of three homicides this week. Two more would follow shortly after.
“People should know this kind of tragedy happened and it’s happening a lot in the Federal Way area,” said Janice Whitish, whose son was friends with Kelley. “And it’s scary. We don’t live too far from here. We have a 5-year-old at home, and it’s tough to think he could be outside playing and somebody with an attitude or a gun, whatever, can shoot randomly, and innocent people could get hurt.”
Audett and his friend Andy Simmons both attended Thomas Jefferson High School with Kelley and will never forget his big hugs, or “big smelly hugs” they joked.
“Every time he saw me at a party or anything, he’d always get this big stupid smile on his face and come up and give me a huge hug, and then we’d just crack jokes,” Simmons said, adding that he hasn’t seen Kelley in seven years, yet his death hits him as hard as when his grandfather died. “He was just a huge part of my life in high school and a little bit past and now he’s gone.”
Audett said Kelley was passionate and very dedicated to the metal music scene.
“He was at every show, cleaning up, volunteering, setting up stages, whatever he could do to improve and support the metal scene in the Northwest, this great state of ours,” Audett said. “He would be there and he would do it.”
Simmons said Kelley was the type of guy who is probably looking down on everyone laughing that he didn’t go out when he was 27 “like a mainstream poser.”
“He’ll be a memory forever,” Simmons said. “Legends never die; he’ll live on forever.”
