Kiel community mourns Sgt. Amy Krueger

KIEL - Even those who didn't directly know Sgt. Amy Krueger are mourning her loss. Kiel and nearby communities are remembering Krueger and her family.

"Reality doesn't hit until you know somebody that was effected by it and I know the Krueger family and my heart goes out to Jeri and it's shocking. It's just shocking," said Kathy Vogel, who lives in Kiel and worked with Krueger's mother.

"I knew she was very passionate about her military career. She went into the military more or less in response to the 9/11 attacks," said Kiel High School principal Dario Talarico.

Krueger was a 1998 graduate of Kiel High School, where she played sports. Though many current students probably didn't know Krueger personally, the high school principal says the community has a strong connection to military families.

"It was somewhat subdued and not so much again because anybody knew Amy directly but because they probably know somebody that's in the military and that just brings their level of anxiety that much higher in the way that this happened," said Talarico.

"You feel for the family and you want to do something," said Jackie Schoenborn, part owner of Schoenborn's Jewelry in Kiel, "Obviously at this point there isn't a whole lot except for prayers. So we decided to put our sign outside and remind people that right now that's the best thing they can do for this family is pray for them. And all the victims." The sign outside the jewelry store reads "Pray for the victim's families and the USA."

For now this city of more than 3,000 people is praying, remembering, and mourning.

"We're there for them, we all are, the whole community is, that's for sure," said Schoenborn.