Photo by Jeremy Lubus

MILWAUKEE – The resolve of students and staff at Milwaukee King High School is being tested as word spreads about the death of assistant boys basketball coach Michael Richter.

“What a strange situation,” said Milwaukee King athletic director John Nolan who had difficulty wrapping his head around the accident. “He always had a smile on his face and you’d never know he was a doctor because he was so unpretentious,” Nolan said about Richter who had been an assistant coach at King the last two years.

“His passion was basketball; he loved basketball,” said Nolan. “He was a wonderful addition to our program and we’ll all miss him.”

Richter was killed Saturday morning around 10:30 while walking his dog when in the 700 block of Green Tree Road.

River Hills Police said a vehicle, being driven by Robert Litzow, 72, or River Hills crossed into the eastbound lane and struck Richter and his dog at the intersection N. Elm Tree Road.

Police said Richter, 47, landed on top of the car which traveled 330 feet off the road and hit a tree. Richter, his dog and Litzow were all killed.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation and autopsies are planned for later today.

Milwaukee King head coach Jim Gosz was in Atlanta when he got the news and was unavailable for comment.

Milwaukee King girls basketball coach Craig Machut said Richter was one of the most positive people he’d ever met.

“He genuinely enjoyed life. We coached together last year and made a point to run into each other this year and every time I've been with him, he was contagiously happy.  He was a blast to be around both on and off the court because he was always genuinely having fun,” said Machut.

“It’s just so tough to lose people like Richter and Keena Phillips because of all the good and joy they brought to those around them and the passion they had for life,” he said.

Richter worked as a family practice physician at the Aurora clinic on River Center Drive in Milwaukee.  Richter was married and leaves behind a wife and two children. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Richter’s death is the second in the last five months for the tight knit King basketball family; this past December 27 alum Keena Phillips, 22, was killed in a car accident while returning to college in South Carolina.

Phillips, a 2004 graduate, was returning to Newberry College when the vehicle she was riding in was hit by a van on Interstate 26 near Newberry, South Carolina.

Milwaukee King is returning today from spring break; the school expects to hold a moment of silence in memory of Richter.