In an interview yesterday, his mother said that Kless had been excited to be back in Philly - back near his friends, and starting a new job.
The youngest of three brothers from Warwick, Orange County, N.Y., he had been working at an insurance firm in Harrisburg after graduating from Temple in 2010, then got a job with the Philadelphia office of Marsh, the world's largest insurance broker.
"He was really happy," his mother, Kendall, said by phone from Warwick, breaking down in tears. "He was happy to be back around his Temple friends. He has a ton of friends. Kevin was a fun-loving, happy-spirited kid."
They last saw each other when he was home for Christmas. "He wanted new clothes for his new job," his mother said.
At 2:25 a.m. Saturday, police said, Kless was walking on Chestnut Street in the historic district with a woman he'd recently begun dating and another female friend, after leaving Lucy's Hat Shop, a bar on Market Street in Old City. They tried to hail a cab.
A taxi came by with its light on, indicating that it was available. But it had passengers. A frustrated Kless, police investigators said, shouted to the driver something like, "Why is your f---ing light on?" or "Turn off your f---ing light!"
The cabbie stopped just long enough for Kless to yell at him, investigators said, when another car pulled up behind the cab. As Kless was arguing with the cabbie, the occupants of the other car - four men in their 20s - tried to pick up the two women, police said.
Three occupants in the car, who might have thought Kless was yelling at them, then got out of the car "and just bee-lined at Kless and just started hitting him," a police source close to the investigation told the Daily News.
