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Donations pour in for slaying victim Nathan Trapuzzano's pregnant wife

Diana Penner and Justin Mack
Nathan Trapuzzano, 24, and his wife Jennifer.

By all accounts, Nathan Trapuzzano was a remarkable man.

A summa cum laude graduate of Ball State University. A self-taught computer engineer. A man of great faith. Fluent in Latin. Generous with his time and talents.

The reaction to his Tuesday death has been remarkable, too. Trapuzzano, who next month was expecting the birth of a daughter and would have celebrated his first wedding anniversary and 25th birthday, was gunned down on the Westside for no apparent reason. Police are seeking tips on finding two suspects in his slaying.

People who knew Trapuzzano have praised his virtues and mourned his loss.

People who did not have shared in the sadness.

A cousin of Trapuzzano's wife, Jennifer, set up an online fundraising page for the family. The goal was $100,000. More than 2,000 people donated a total of more than $114,000 in one day.

Perhaps they found his life so inspiring. Perhaps they found his death so shocking. Perhaps as the body count is beginning to surge again for another year in Indianapolis, the apparently senseless slaying of someone so thoughtful, so giving, so good has not just struck a nerve but pinched it. Hard.

"I am at a loss of words to how many people have reached out to myself and my family in our time of need," Chelsea Ransom wrote on the gofundme.com page.

A man who said he read about the slaying in the New York Daily News donated $50. A woman in Omaha, Neb., who said she lost a brother 15 years ago gave $25.

A statement from the family late Wednesday said the "outpouring of love and support reminds us that there is so much good in this world."

As the donations have rolled in, so too have the tributes.

"He was certainly in the top 1 percent of the students I've ever taught. He might have been the very top student," said Christine Shea, a Ball State professor of classics who worked closely with Trapuzzano over the years. "His ability was so good, and he was so intelligent. But more than that, he was such a generous person."

Shea said she first met Trapuzzano when he stopped by to take a placement test for Latin. In the years that followed, he would take nine of her classes, covering topics from classical culture to the classical world.

Trapuzzano excelled in each class, Shea said, and earned a number of undergraduate academic awards. He also served as president of Eta Sigma Phi, an honorary society for classical studies.

Trapuzzano's generosity often came in the form of time and knowledge, she said. In addition to focusing on his own studies, he found time to tutor classmates and high school students.

"He tutored students so much that I had to take them aside and say, 'Give this guy some money,'" Shea said. "He was always an exceptional kid."

Shea said Trapuzzano became much more than just a student by the time he graduated. He became family.

"What a terrible blow," she said Thursday morning through tears. "A teacher is rather like a parent. You don't think that your students will ever die before you. … You think you will be spared that pain."

Another connection Trapuzzano made while at Ball State was with the Rev. Christopher Roberts, the administrator at St. Mary parish in Union City and St. Joseph parish in Winchester.

Roberts said in his early years as a priest, he would drive from his assigned parish to visit students at Ball State's Newman Center. On Tuesday evenings, he held a Latin Mass, and Trapuzzano was a faithful attendee.

"I was impressed when I first met him. He was a man of great strength and great goodness and especially great faith," Roberts said.

After Roberts was reassigned, he briefly lost touch with Trapuzzano. The connection was re-established about a year and a half ago when Roberts was asked to be the priest at Trapuzzano's wedding.

He said one item rarely mentioned about Trapuzzano was his sense of humor.

"He knew how to have fun. I remember he was very fluent in Latin, and I never got as good at it," Roberts said. "When we were preparing for the wedding and there were portions of the ceremony in Latin, he gave me this big, thick Latin grammar book and said, 'Here, Father, you're going to need this.'"

Roberts described Trapuzzano's slaying as "senseless."

"There are all sorts of emotions from sadness to anger, but what is keeping me centered is that Nathan would have wanted to focus on forgiveness and reconciliation. And we pray for the people who attacked him."

After graduating in 2011 with a degree in classical studies, Trapuzzano decided to pursue a career in computer programming despite having never taken a computer programming class. The Pittsburgh native landed a job as a computer programmer with Ivy Tech Community College.

In response to Trapuzzano's slaying, the school said it will grant a full two-year scholarship to his unborn daughter to honor her father.

"The Ivy Tech Community College family is shocked and saddened by the sudden loss of one of our own, Nathan Trapuzzano, a young and bright software engineer at the college," a statement from the school said.

Police have released no known motive for the shooting. Trapuzzano was walking east on 16th Street, his routine exercise, when he was attacked by two men, one of whom appeared to act as a lookout, between about 5:45 a.m. and 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Trapuzzano appeared to be dressed in simple workout clothes and not carrying anything. He was found, shot in the abdomen, in the parking lot of Tron Tire Shop, 3500 block of West 16th Street.

After he was shot, video footage from the tire store shows the second assailant fled northeast across 16th. The first assailant, believed to have been the shooter, fled west on 16th.

Trapuzzano was among 39 people killed in Indianapolis through April 1. Last year, which marked the highest homicide total in seven years, had 30 homicides through the same period.

Anyone with information on the slaying is asked to call the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department homicide unit at (317) 327-3475 or Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS (8477).

Star reporters Diana Penner and Vic Ryckaert contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.

How to help

Donations to the family can be made at any PNC Bank location to the Nathan Trapuzzano Memorial Fund.