Just 23, Doug Gunter was by all accounts someone who had life figured out.

If only the man suspected of shooting and killing him in Burlington last Friday had lived by Gunter’s example.

It was compassion and empathy, according to those who knew him best, that were the main currencies in which Gunter took stock, leaving those with whom he crossed paths all the richer for the experience.

In a life ended much too soon, they say Gunter was especially kind to and respectful of those elders he encountered each day on Swinomish Reservation.

Having already met and successfully overcome his own persona...