By Sean Kirst,
Syracuse Post-Standard Columnist
Lubo Kalaptchiev caught a ride Sunday with his friend Simeon Popov to the Carousel Center mall. Lubo had been away at a fencing tournament in Indiana, and the two of them had some catching up to do. Simeon was supposed to buy a pair of new shoes. Instead he wound up talking, not shopping.
Simeon, who played trombone, was three months away from finishing his graduate work in music at Syracuse University. Simeon told Lubo he wasn't sure whether to look for a job or to continue on toward his doctorate. Pretty soon, before he bought his shoes, it was time to go.
"He told me, 'I'm going to buy them tomorrow,' " said Lubo, 27, who knew his friend wanted to get to his new job on time.
It was Simeon's second day as a deliveryman for Dorian's Gourmet Pizza and Deli. Barely an hour after Lubo dropped him off, Simeon brought some chicken wings to an apartment on Ostrom Avenue. He walked in on a robbery, according to police.
Simeon never had a chance. A man in a mask pointed a gun at Simeon's chest and pulled the trigger, police said. It didn't go off. The man raised the gun a little higher, police said, and shot Simeon in the head. SU Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund described it A VISIT, FROM PAGE C-1
Thursday as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes to ever occur on this campus."
Freund was among the speakers at a memorial service in the Setnor Auditorium at Crouse College. Hundreds of students and teachers showed up. SU's trombone choir opened the service with a tribute. Then the young choir members settled in the balcony. Some of them kept their heads buried in their arms for the entire service.
Simeon's friends described him as playful and joyous, a guy who could fall in love at first sight with many women many times in the same day. Lubo, called up to speak, could hardly form the words. He tried to describe Simeon's dreams, how Simeon loved being in Syracuse.
"Something happened," Lubo said, and then his voice all but gave out.
Chris Notarthomas, an SU graduate student, told the crowd about a day when Notarthomas did poorly in some important juried graduate tests. Simeon found the upset Notarthomas walking toward his car. The two of them wound up wandering the campus for an hour while Notarthomas talked it out and Simeon listened.
"He touched everyone," said Lubo, who knew him best of all.
They grew up together in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. They met in kindergarten, when they were 4 years old. Their front doors were maybe two minutes apart. Lubo and Simeon used to crouch on the sidewalk and roll around some Matchbox cars. They'd often play soccer or basketball in the street.
"He was always peaceful," Lubo said. "He never wanted to fight."
Their paths rarely diverged, even if their passions did. Simeon came from a family of musicians. His goals were built around music and mastering the trombone. Lubo loved fencing. He still coaches the sport. The two of them finally went their different ways 10 years ago, when Lubo joined the Bulgarian army about the same time that his father moved to Syracuse.
Lubo joined his dad here in 1998. He invited Simeon for a visit, which turned into a long stay, which eventually led to Simeon being accepted into SU's graduate school of music.
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