Obituaries
Memorial, Donation Fund Set For Slain 7-Eleven Clerk Kenneth Redding
Kenneth Redding Memorial Fund donations are being accepted at Chase bank locations. Memorial services are set for Hillsboro Memorial Gardens.
The man remembered for his ready smile, whose life ended too soon at the hands of a reported stalker, will be remembered Thursday, July 18, at a memorial gathering and services at Hillsboro Memorial Gardens in Brandon.
At the 7-Eleven in Riverview, at the corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road, a makeshift memorial remains where it has been after Kenneth Lee Redding, 54, died on the job there, July 10.
At the site July 17, at the entrance to the 7-Eleven, is a picture of a smiling Redding, with notice that donations for the Kenneth Lee Redding Memorial Fund, by cash or check, are being accepted at any Chase bank location. Noted, too, is that the affable clerk is "in our dearest memories, thoughts and prayers."
The sign invites those who knew Redding to gather July 18, from 1 to 2 p.m., for a memorial gathering at Hillsboro Memorial Gardens in Brandon, at 2323 West Brandon Blvd., just east of the Westfield Brandon mall entrance.
A memorial service is set to follow, at 2 p.m.
According to Redding's co-worker, Craig Frost, Redding would "bring to the table" his "goofy smile" and "unique sense of humor." He had "a very unique sense of humor" and "was one of a kind."
"He always had a good war story about his time in Vietnam," Frost added. "He was a veteran, he fought for our country."
Redding was declared dead July 10 at Tampa General Hospital, after a customer entered the 7-Eleven shortly after 1:30 a.m. that same day and found the clerk lying in a pool of blood, in an aisle, conscious but unable to speak.
The assailant "actually stalked the clerk," said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, at a press conference later that day. "He waited in the store for quite awhile, hidden, for the clerk to be alone and that's when he attacked him. He stabbed him multiple times." Gee said he didn't "know if robbery was even a motive here or just a motive to kill this person." He called it one of the most gruesome surveillance tapes he has seen in his 35 years on the job.
Charged in the crime, on a count of first-degree murder, is 20-year-old Lawrence Robert Bongiovanni, who was arrested in Charlotte County and extradited back to Hillsborough. He gave his address as "homeless."
According to jail records, Bongiovanni was arrested three times between 2009 and 2011, for charges ranging from violation of probation to aggravated battery with great bodily harm. His reported addresses were in the Heather Lakes, Clair Mal/Palm River and Progress Village areas, in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.
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