March 1, 2009: Emerging from the shadow of a gun

WASECA, MINN. - It was Friday afternoon, one very much like that Friday two years ago. Three good friends, Michael Gaytko, Garrett Rigdon and Jared Krassin, had been playing Rock Band and eating pizza and talking about the one who wasn't there.

Through the plate glass of Michael's home overlooking Rice Lake, a fresh lid of snow offered a seemingly endless field of possibilities for three 15-year-olds. The boys agreed that if their pal, Alec Kruger, were alive he'd already be out there, skimming across the frozen fields in one of his dad's vintage snowmobiles.

Sixty miles away, in a courtroom in Rochester, lawyers were picking the jurors who in the next two weeks will decide whether a young man named Michael Zabawa entered the Kruger home in the middle of the night on Feb. 3, 2007, and killed Alec and his dad, Tracy, and wounded Alec's mother, Hilary.

Starting Monday, the jurors -- a Mayo Clinic microbiologist, a gas pipeline foreman, a phone triage nurse, an employee in a brokerage firm and eight others -- will learn about the end of Alec's life. Since Alec was calling 911 in a brave attempt to save his mother when he was shot, they will likely hear his final seconds.

But it's his first 13 years that matter to Michael, Garrett and Jared. They want to talk about the class clown with the big laugh and big heart. How he was always messing around in choir, inventing songs that busted his classmates up; how they put on a skit for the talent show that was a knockoff of Hans and Franz from Saturday Night Live; how they acted together in another school production, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

Michael and Alec shared the same guitar teacher, and they all loved classic rock, like Boston and Rush. They talked about starting a band some day. Still do.

Michael looked out the window at the snow. "Man, he would love this," he said.

In Rochester, prosecutors were arguing about how many photographs of Alec's body they could introduce. The decision? Eight. One "shows the view from standing right in the doorway, the view of Alec that the shooter had," according to the Waseca County News.

His buddies have their own photos -- Alec at school, playing football, playing baseball. Michael also has Alec's guitar pick as a remembrance.

They were just 13 when it happened. Michael was at a hockey tournament when he heard, and everybody wrote "For Alec" on their sticks. Jared was sleeping when a friend called and told him. The following Monday at school, there was a room set aside where kids could grieve.

"I sat there the whole day," Garrett said.

Then, it was fear that hit them. A killer in the night is an iconic American horror. They had nightmares. They had to be sure the doors were locked at night. For a while, the sight of a gun on television or an episode of CSI could trigger tears.

"I don't want to say, moved on, but we are more desensitized," Michael said.

Time starts to heal the grief

"And you know why that is?" asked his mother. "It's time. That's one of the gifts we have as humans. It allows us to move on. It doesn't mean you still don't care for him and love him. "

They all nodded.

Alec's friends won't be following the trial closely. Their parents will probably tell them what they need to know. They're hoping for one thing from it.

Meanwhile, they'll play Rock Band, go snowmobiling, eat pizza and goof off in choir, like normal kids. "I don't focus on the anger so much as the memories," Michael said. "I've learned to cherish every moment with friends and family."

On Friday, Michael and Jared got their driving permits. Soon, they'll get their licenses, and the world beyond Waseca will be wide open.