An altercation that ended in the death of a University of Dayton student Sunday apparently started with a racial slur, the victim’s father said Monday.

John Holmes Sr. said his 19-year-old son, Nicholas Holmes, was walking with friends early Sunday morning in an apartment complex in Lexington, Ky., when someone shouted a racial slur at Holmes’ roommate, who is biracial. Holmes, who is white, tried to prevent a fight, but another man head-butted him, knocking him to the ground, his father said.

Holmes died hours later of head injuries.

“It just seems like Nick was trying to do the right thing, and then someone just came and plowed him down,” the Ohio student’s father said in a phone interview from his home in House Springs, Mo.

Lexington Police Lt. James Curless said there were several parties going on in the apartment complex. Officers at the scene noted the presence of alcohol on Holmes and a friend, Noah M. McDaniel, 21, a University of Dayton student who was punched in the nose.

John Holmes said his son was with a group of friends who were visiting girlfriends in Lexington.

The attack came during a weekend of crime around the University of Kentucky. Five University of Kentucky students were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning in three separate cases. One of those students was shot.

University of Kentucky Police spokesman Travis Manley said the campus had doubled the number of uniformed and plainclothes officers patrolling the area.

Lexington Police said they, too, were stepping up patrols near campus.

After conducting interviews with witnesses, Curless said, police suspect that Holmes’ attacker is white and about 20 years old and has very short, dark hair. The man is about 5-foot-10 and 200 pounds, Curless said.

Witnesses told police that the man had a cut on his forehead as a result of the altercation.

No arrest warrants have been issued in the homicide or in any of the robberies, Curless said.

Far from Lexington, Holmes’ family and friends tried to deal with his death Monday. A prayer service took place in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the University of Dayton, a Catholic school with more than 10,000 students.

Holmes’ father described Nicholas as “a leader.”

“It was just traumatic,” he said, “driving from St. Louis to Lexington and then seeing my son like that.”