BEDFORD -- When Michael S. McKinney was 3 years old, he set everyone straight.
"My name," he said, "is Mikey."
Ever since, he refused to answer to anyone that did not address him the right way until he got to Ball State. That's when it became "Mike" or "Lil' Mac."
But people who knew Michael McKinney as he was growing up in Bedford will always know him as "Mikey."
The McKinney family will bury him today, four days after the fourth-year student was killed by a University Police officer. The funeral will be held at Vincent DePaul Catholic Church of Bedford. Hundreds already showed for his viewing Tuesday.
They waited in the rain at Ferguson-Lee Funeral Home.
The ones who talked about him there talked about his humor and how happy he made them.
They also demanded to know why he was taken from them.
THE MCKINNEY FAMILY
Katie McKinney said her family has a disease. It's called Karaoke. Michael McKinney and his brother, Ryan McKinney, were convinced they had a gift. They thought they could sing like Axl Rose.
Katie McKinney said her brothers used to fight over who could do the better impression.
"He loved his older brother Ryan so much," Katie McKinney said. "He tried to follow everything that Ryan did."
The climax of that rivalry came at Ryan McKinney's wedding, when Ryan and Michael -- "dueling Axls" -- used a Karaoke machine to battle it out in front of everyone.
"He did some fantastic impressions," Katie McKinney said of Michael.
Later Michael told a friend he wanted the Guns 'N' Roses song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" played at his funeral.
Katie McKinney has been telling stories like this one to reporters ever since she found out about her brother's death. It is part of her mission to make sure the public understands Michael McKinney was not a criminal and never would have been trying to break into a woman's house.
"It's easier for people to stomach this story if Mikey was a bad character," Katie McKinney said. "He pushed everybody to look at life like it was something to be appreciated."
Reports that McKinney was trying to burglarize a home are the ones that especially offend the McKinneys, since no one knows if that is true. More likely, Katie McKinney said, is that Michael McKinney was drunk and confused and thought he was trying to get into a friend's house. The friend lived at the corner of Dicks and North streets - seven houses away. He had told that friend that he was coming over that night.
"People can draw their own conclusions," Katie McKinney said.
THE NETWORK
Michael McKinney's friend Justin Gilbert has his own room at the McKinney house.
"It's the coat closet," Katie McKinney said.
Gilbert was the first person McKinney would call when he came home from Ball State. From there the network of friends would be activated, and everyone would get together.
"He was real loyal to his friends," Katie McKinney said.
Gilbert said his head was still spinning Tuesday as he prepared to go to his friend's viewing.
"I still really don't believe it," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said he finds himself pulled in two directions as his friend's death is explored. The officer who shot and killed McKinney has had seven months of experience.
Gilbert is also training to be an officer, and McKinney was his biggest supporter.
"He was always proud of the fact that I was going to be a police officer," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said he feels sorry for the officer, but he has trouble believing his friend would attack a cop.
Friends of McKinney's, who have been with Gilbert since hearing the news, say Gilbert's support of McKinney remains unwavering.
"He'd give it all up for Mikey," Brian Mickish said.
Mickish, a junior at Purdue University who played football in high school with McKinney, said he always organized group events when the friends would gather.
"We'd all go to Mikey," Mickish said. "He didn't like not doing anything."
Amber Query, a fourth-year student at Indiana State University who went to kindergarten and high school with McKinney, has family in law enforcement. She said the incidents as she has heard them don't make any sense.
"Your gun is the last thing you pull," Query said.
Jennifer Flinn, a friend of McKinney's who stood in the rain next to Query, emphasized how wonderful her friend was.
"Never in my life have I ever known anybody as carefree," Flinn said.
Justin Hobson knew McKinney for about the past 10 years, and he said he would always remember his friend's love of Notre Dame football.
At the viewing, McKinney was dressed in a Notre Dame football sweatshirt.
HIGH SCHOOL
Dennis Martin, a teacher at Bedford North Lawrence High School, planned on teaching his psychology students about fear, death and dying this week.
The lesson went on as planned, but the students also discussed Michael McKinney, who graduated from their school four years before.
Martin had coached the freshman football team McKinney played on. He was also one of McKinney's assistant coaches during
McKinney's sophomore and junior year. Martin said even though most students didn't go to school with him, almost half of them knew who he was.
"You can sense the mood of a school real quick," Martin said. "It's been pretty somber."
Martin said McKinney was a happy, go-lucky kid in high school who never had any problems. He said he was especially helpful on the football team.
"He was one of our leaders in a lot of ways," Martin said."I have nothing but good memories of him."
Teachers at the school have been talking about the situation ever since news hit, he said.
"Tragedy on all sides," Martin said. "That's something that can't be forgotten."
Martin said he let his class talk about McKinney's death to help them cope with and understand the town's loss.
"He could make the most sour person on Earth laugh," Martin said. "Mikey made you happy you had chosen coaching and teaching as a profession."
Staff Reporter Melissa Skopelja contributed to this report...2hief reporter
Three years ago, when a drunken student threatened to break down her door, Rai Peterson called the University Police Department.
"He was shaking my door, carrying on and screaming," Peterson, an associate professor of English
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