Tribute: 7-Eleven Victim 'Always Found A Way To Make You Laugh'

Craig Frost arrived at his place of work July 10 only to see for himself the grim reality of a horror unfathomable — an investigation of a crime scene unfolding — as he recounted the happy smile of a colleague who's life ended too soon.

"Mixed emotions," is how Frost described his psyche that morning, at the 7-Eleven at Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road, where 54-year-old Kenneth Lee Redding was stabbed earlier that day, around 1:30 a.m.

"It's sadness, Kenneth is gone," Frost said about his emotions. "And it's anger, just very angry, that somebody did this to him. I'm thinking, what if i could have been there? What if a customer would have been there? Could we have stopped this?"

A makeshift memorial was in view at the 7-Eleven on July 11, with colored chalk in a cup inviting people to post their sentiments. "This store will never be the same without you," read one notice, signed, "7-11 employees."

"Rest in peace," read many others, with a cup holding two white candles and several bouquets in view, giving testament to a community's difficultly coming to terms with the death of a kind clerk at the hands of such unspeakable violence.

Redding was declared dead at Tampa General Hospital, after a customer entered the 7-Eleven shortly after 1:30 a.m. and found the clerk lying in a pool of blood, in an aisle, conscious but unable to speak.

That customer, Jimmy "Jim" Walker said he tried to stop the bleeding, but could not, after he ran outside to tell another customer to call 911. Walker said he asked Redding to blink his eyes if he could hear him and that Redding did so.

"I am comforted to know that he [Redding] had someone there," Frost said, "that he didn't just lay on the cold floor and die."

• See 7-Eleven Victim Recounts Horror of Finding Blood-Soaked Clerk
  
  

As for Redding, Frost said he knew him first when Frost was a customer, and later, as the two worked together as clerks.

"Ken was a joker, he always found a way to make you laugh," Frost said. "He always had a good war story about his time in Vietnam. He was a veteran, he fought for our country."

Now, life goes one without Kenneth Lee Redding, whose life was snuffed out by a man yielding a knife.

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The alleged killer is Lawrence Robert Bongiovanni, 20, who was captured in Charlotte County last night, July 10, facing one count of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Bongiovanni was to be extradited back to Hillsborough County.

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According to Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, the crime was one of the worst he has seen in his 35 years on the job. Redding reportedly was stabbed multiple times in the upper body.

• See 3 Men Captured In 7-Eleven Stabbing Death