Christopher Martell boarded a bus bound for Mexico City last year, alone, to visit his grandparents.

When he arrived at his destination, his grandparents were not there to pick him up.

So he hailed a taxi and found his way to his grandparents’ house.

Independence characterized Martell, an 18-year-old freshman from Kansas City, Kan., who accidentally shot himself and died Dec. 22, 2004. A bullet hit a main artery in his leg, said his father, Miguel Martell.

His body was found the next afternoon in his car.

His father said Martell had no problem traveling by himself to a place he’d never been. In fact, he wanted to do it.

“He always wanted to do things on his own,” his father said.

His father guessed that he was giving someone a ride home when the accident happened.

“He was always giving rides home to his friends and family,” his father said.

Martell graduated with honors last spring from the Sumner Academy for Arts and Sciences in Kansas City, Kan., and was studying computer engineering at the University of Kansas. After graduation, his father said Martell planned to work for a company designing video games.

“He was a very hard worker,” his father said. “He would work double shifts just so he could have more money for school.”

But even though Martell took some things seriously, he wasn’t afraid to bring humor to even the most serious situation.

“He wanted to be a clown when he was a kid,” Martell’s father said. “He always liked to make you laugh.”

But the thing people who knew Martell will remember the most was his dedication to his friends and his family, which he demonstrated by giving rides to his grandmother or cracking a joke just to make his friends feel better.

“He was the kind of person who wanted to help you,” his father said.