Memorial held for Ball State student

MUNCIE -- Dozens of Ball State University students held a candlelight memorial service Friday for a Ball State University student who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a campus police officer.\nEarlier Friday, university officials said they had recommended to the school's trustees that Michael McKinney be posthumously granted the bachelor's degree in marketing that he had been pursuing before last weekend's shooting.\nAt the outdoor memorial service, Douglas McConkey, vice president for student affairs, told mourners holding candles he didn't know McKinney, but he now knows the 21-year-old was "loved by a lot of people" and "will be missed by more people than he could imagine."\n"I see now why he loved this place so much," said McKinney's mother, Lisa, who urged students to be safe and to call and tell their parents they love them.\n"Those were the last words he said to me," Lisa McKinney said.\n"It was a haunting picture looking down at 200 or so candles," said music professor Kirby Koriath, who was up in the tower playing the carillon bells.\nRookie Ball State Officer Robert Duplain shot McKinney, of Bedford, four times on Nov. 8. Police say the shooting occurred as Duplain responded to a call about 3:30 a.m. of a stranger pounding on the door of a house near campus.\nDuplain and a witness who lives at a neighboring house have said McKinney lunged at the officer and did not follow commands to stop before the shots were fired.\nFriends who were with McKinney before the shooting have said that they believed he was drunk and thought he was at a friend's similar-looking home.\nMcKinney's relatives have said he was not a violent person and questioned why Duplain used deadly force so quickly.\nA decision on whether the shooting was justified or should be reviewed by a grand jury would be made by the Delaware County prosecutor's office, he said.