The 40-year-old Lincoln man accused of stabbing his father to death during a family gathering Sunday night had been in a fistfight with the 59-year-old in the moments leading up to the alleged murder, police said in new court filings.
Joseph Kruger was gathering his belongings and preparing to leave the party, near 63rd Street and Baldwin Avenue, when he and Mark Kruger engaged with one another again, investigators said in the probable cause statement for the 40-year-old's arrest, filed Tuesday.
Police described Mark Kruger as Joseph Kruger's stepfather. While Mark Kruger is not Joseph Kruger's biological father, the 59-year-old raised him from the time of his birth and the two considered themselves blood relatives, according to Joseph Kruger's sister.
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Investigators believe the elder Kruger picked a fight with his son after Joseph Kruger "scolded a child" at the family gathering at 6217 Baldwin Ave. Sunday evening, Lincoln Police Investigator Xavier Schwerdtfeger said in the probable cause statement.
The two men traded blows sometime before 7 p.m. before bystanders broke up their initial fight, witnesses told police.
But witnesses offered police differing accounts of what happened next.
Some witnesses said that Joseph Kruger was preparing to leave the party when his father confronted him again, and continued toward him even after the 40-year-old grabbed a steak knife and pointed it toward him, Schwerdtfeger said in the statement.
Others told police that Joseph Kruger grabbed the knife and walked 5 or 6 feet toward Mark Kruger before stabbing him in the chest.
In a complaint filed Tuesday, prosecutors called it first-degree murder.
Police found Mark Kruger unresponsive with a puncture wound to his chest after they responded to a home about 7 p.m. Sunday on a report of a stabbing, Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins said at a news conference Monday morning.
And they found Joseph Kruger covered with blood after performing CPR on his stepdad until first responders arrived, Schwerdtfeger said.
Lincoln Fire and Rescue crews took Mark Kruger to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries Sunday night, according to police.
Police took his son to the Lancaster County jail.
"Obviously, this is a tragic event for this family, and our hearts go out to them," Ewins said Monday. "I can't imagine what they're feeling right now. The loss of a husband and the arrest of a stepson. Our hearts go out to them."
Investigators found the steak knife, which Schwerdtfeger said was covered in blood, soon after arriving on scene, according to the court filings.
And they found Joseph Kruger with swelling to his face "consistent with being punched," Schwerdtfeger said.
Prosecutors charged him Tuesday with first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony.
At his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon, which Joseph Kruger attended over Zoom from his county jail cell, the 40-year-old asked Judge Thomas Zimmerman to appoint the county's public defender to represent him in the case, indicating he has a disability that has kept him out of work.
At the request of prosecutors, the judge set Joseph Kruger's percentage bond at $2 million, as the 40-year-old wiped tears from his face in his jail cell.
He must pay $200,000 to be released.
A friend of the Kruger family expenses.