It’s telling that LeRoy Lange was driving from his son’s to his mother’s house when he was shot to death on Interstate 5 near Alger. He loved to be with his family.

“I can’t believe he was coming to see me, and I didn’t get to see him,” said his mother, Cecelia J. Lange of Mount Vernon.

Lange was one of six victims killed Tuesday. Four more were injured.

Lange, 65, was born in New Mexico, but grew up in Skagit County. He graduated from Mount Vernon High School, then earned a degree from Skagit Valley College.

His mother said she saw glimpses of her son’s mechanical mind early on.

“He just took things apart and put them together,” she said.

Later, LeRoy Lange worked at Boeing on a missile project. He also worked in steel and was a Whatcom Chief Ferry deckhand and skipper.

He was retired and living in Methow with his wife, Carla. His son, Nicholas, lives in Bellingham.

Growing up, Nicholas, an only child, recalled how his father built — but never flew — remote-controlled model airplanes.

“He spent so much time putting them together, he didn’t want to see them crash,” The Seattle Times reported.

This year, father and son were working on a large-scale remote-control airplane that was to be 8 feet by 8 feet. On Tuesday, his father brought over the engine he had built for it, the Seattle Times reported.

Max Holtrop, a longtime friend of LeRoy and his older brother Jerry, said LeRoy “was an all around great person and fun to be around.” The three would travel to Bellingham in their early 20s to listen to live honky-tonk music. LeRoy would be the designated driver.

Holtrop, in a phone interview from his home in Arizona, said he found out about his old friend’s death reading the Arizona Republic. He had plans to visit Skagit County next week and had hoped to catch up with the Langes.

LeRoy Lange was found dead after someone reported a car accident on Interstate 5 Tuesday afternoon. Investigators soon realized he had been shot and could be another casualty in the killing spree that began earlier that afternoon in Alger.