Durango – Conor Sauer, 11, doesn’t know everything about his best friend Kevin Abbott – just the sorts of things boys know about each other when they have sword fights with sticks and regularly play Gameboy together after school.
“He came over every night,” Conor says. “He was the only person in the whole class who was so much fun.”
Conor heard in a special announcement Tuesday morning to his fifth-grade class at Animas Valley Elementary that 11-year-old Kevin had died just before midnight Monday in a Denver hospital from a gunshot wound to his face.
“Miss Fisher came in and said Kevin has passed away. Our whole entire class cried. I was pulled out of class to talk to Miss Rachel (a counselor),” Conor says. “I don’t want to believe it’s real.”
La Plata County sheriff’s officials are still investigating, but so far have indicated that Kevin likely reached for his 16-year-old brother Michael’s new .22 rifle, lying on a bed in their home. When he pulled it toward him, it discharged, hitting him in the cheek around 3:45 p.m. Sunday. His mother Patty Abbott, a single parent, and his brother were at home.
Kevin was rushed from his home in the Durango North Village mobile home park to Mercy Medical Center, and then flown with his mother to Swedish Medical Center in Englewood that night.
“Conor was lucky to have Kevin for a friend,” says Conor’s mother, Crystal Cole.
Conor says Kevin liked kickball, soccer and football. He had bright blue eyes, short blond hair and was husky and strong, Conor recalls with help from his mother. And Kevin always had a big smile.
“Kevin was happy-go-lucky and so smart, so sensitive,” Crystal says. “He was always worried about his mom. ‘I have to be home by 5,’ he’d say. ‘She’ll either be home from work or calling me, and I can’t make her worry.”‘
Conor’s grandmother, Julie Frampton, liked Kevin just as much as everyone else.
“He insisted on taking his shoes off before he came in,” she said. “This kid was always polite. He was always tuned into people. I told him he was a joy to have around.”
Conor’s dad, Dennis Cole, a truck driver, is in and out a lot, he says, but he knows one thing about Kevin.
“He was a nice kid. Everybody says that about people when something bad happens. But he really was a nice kid.”
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
