LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – Many knew him as the hard-hitting, crime-stopping detective, following high-profile cases.
“Pushed the clerk back, grabbed whatever he could from the cash register and took off on foot. Subsequently, we realized he had a driver later on,” Detective Jason Schweitzer addressed the media regarding a 2013 robbery case.
But some say they knew him before he was Detective Schweitzer.
“I remember him as a little kid. He had big glasses and he just looked like he was never going to be a big boy,” Norma Luckett, a family friend, said.
That little boy growing up--following his dreams to be a police officer, just like his dad.
“All he ever wanted to do was be a policeman like his dad. And it's such a tragedy. This man had so much to give,” Luckett said.
Schweitzer was tragically hit and killed by an alleged drunk driver, early Saturday morning while in Lexington for an FOP conference. It was devastating news for Luckett, a longtime family friend. She says she took pride in watching that little boy grow up to be exactly what he wanted to be, and so much more.
“He was just nothing but a fine man and a fine father. It's just a legacy of that family,” she said.
And it's a legacy that touched people who didn't even know him.
“It's really hard to believe that it did happen like it happened,” Wendell Mesker, who attends St. Michael’s Church, said.
The Mesker's have gone to St. Michael's Church with Schweitzer's parents for years but had never met him. But they still felt the need to pay their respects to the fallen officer.
“He was well-known and well-loved. That's the best way I can put it,” Florence Mesker, another attendee of St. Michael’s Church, said.
A funeral mass will be held for Schweitzer Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. at St. Michael. He will be buried at Cave Hill Cemetery immediately following the service.