A journalist and advocate who rose from homelessness and addiction to serve as a spokesperson for Philadelphia’s most vulnerable was shot and killed at his home early Monday, police said.
Josh Kruger, 39, was shot seven times at about 1:30 a.m. and collapsed in the street after seeking help, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Police believe the door to his Point Breeze home was unlocked or the shooter knew how to get in, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. No arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered, they said.
Authorities haven’t spoken publicly about the circumstances surrounding the killing.
I’m always a bit suspicious when a Journalist is killed like this. Who were those who may have been threatened by what he published?
Bigots a.k.a conservatives
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. There’s an epidemic of violence going through the conservative movement right now. They’ve been growing more and more violent. See Jan 6. and all the terrorist attacks/shootings coming from their side lately.
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Someone needs to read more about the Paradox of Tolerance.
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Yes, not tolerating intolerance is the same as advocating for the destruction of people based on race. Grow up and quit sucking on Donnie’s toes.
It is a bit on the nose.
Or who would have been threatened by what would have been published, should he still be alive?
This is why journalists should invest in a dead man’s switch that will automatically publish stuff I the journalists cannot check in
One last fuck you from the grave
“Either the door was open, or the offender knew how to get the door open,” he said. “We just don’t know yet.”
Detectives believe Kruger’s death may have been the result of a domestic dispute or may have been drug-related, according to three law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said police investigators recovered troubling text messages between Kruger and a former partner. Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.
In recent months, he’d written on social media about a variety of alarming incidents at his home.
In April, he posted that an ex-partner had broken into his home. “The door was locked, so he had somehow obtained a copy of my keys,” he wrote. He had allowed the man, whom he’d known for years “before his troubles,” to stay at his house briefly after being released from jail. He said he was able to deescalate the situation and the man eventually left, and he changed his locks.
In August, someone threw a rock through his home window, he said. Then, about two weeks ago, he wrote on Facebook that someone came to his house searching for their boyfriend — “a man I’ve never met once in my entire life.” The person called themselves “Lady Diabla, the She-Devil of the Streets” and threatened him, he wrote.
Same here.
I have an uncle who was killed due to an article he was doing research for. Sadly, he ended up in a coma and then someone came back to finish the job. It had a large impact on my mother and her siblings, though it was a few years before I was born. I had always wondered how much of it was an exaggeration until a couple years ago when we found an article saying basically the same things the aunts and uncles always had.
Is it because they interviewed the aunts and uncles as their primary source?
That is a great idea, but no. He was living in another part of the country from them at the time of the initial attack. The article was written in that area.
No doubt a fascist done this.
Cops definitely murdered this man.
That’s my vote as well.
It would seem so.
Police have said the motive behind the killing remains unclear, but that the pair were in a relationship.
Davis’ mother and older brother said that relationship began years ago, when Davis was just 15, and involved sex, drugs, and abuse. They told The Inquirer in recent interviews that Davis said Kruger was threatening to post sexually explicit videos of him online before, police say, Davis shot him.
Not a cop it seems.
Some of those who work forces,
Are the same who burn crosses.
Is there any info linking police to the shooting?
Hello again old friend
Not to my knowledge but it was still an idea worth posing given the polices history against the homeless population nation wide and would be an easy answer as to why there’s not been any breaks in the case.
Although I didn’t pose what I said as fact, I can’t help what people will assume of groups they’re already familiar with.
It is the city that bombed it’s own people
Dude. The words you’re typing are grossly irrelevant to the story you’re commenting on.
___Care to explain further or are we just throwing pebbles
It looks like you used a catchphrase to grab worthless internet popularity points. We have no evidence, and it very well could have been the cops, or a junkie, or Santa. You’re on a public forum, it’s not stone throwing to point out nonsense.
They made a quip that referenced a popular anti-establishment song which criticizes police for acts of hate towards minorities.
This person, who was defending minorities, was shot and killed in their home, in the city whose police dept. dropped an actual bomb on minorities less than 40 years ago.
Police have also been known to enter people’s houses and perform execution-style killings like this in the US.
How is it irrelevant?
Because a cop didn’t kill him
That’s called a conspiracy theory.
You have taken a handful of unrelated things and applied them to an entirely unrelated story. With this formula, you could conclude anything you wished to conclude and get people to believe you because people don’t give a shit about facts any more.
I would advise people, all people in general, to read some words about the thing they think they know something about, before they go about committing on such things and spreading misleading and false statements.
I would like you to explain how you typed those words in relation to this story.
This case involves what the police had indicated was likely a domestic dispute, in the victim’s home, possibly involving drugs.
You’re talking about uh, the police murdering the homeless? Seriously. How could you possibly make that connection?
I don’t know what you mean by “breaks in this case” when this was posted only 24 hours after the incident. Within 36 hours, the police had identified a suspect.With my fingers.
Gotcha. That makes sense that you let your fingers do the thinking for you. Anyone with half a brain would have a hard time putting down your words.
We don’t know the cops did this.
No shortage of right-wing reactionaries, who aren’t cops, shooting people.
that said, the Philly PD don’t have the best reputation, e.g. blatantly trying to frame Mumia, etc.
Very sad to see this. Unfortunate what happened to Josh.
But who’s committing these crimes, and why so much senseless violence?
Major cities have always been cesspools of violent crime.
It’s Philly, this is nothing new (Edit: since people love twisting words, I meant violence in general not the specific targeting of an activist journalist for Christ sake). I grew up in South Jersey (half way in between Philly and Atlantic City, NJ) and there’s always a headline on the nightly news about “X people were killed in a shootout today in West/South/North Philly today”, most people don’t see it though since Philly is overshadowed by NYC (anyone from Central Jersey and North gets NYC news). Everything but Center City has always been a shit hole for the most part.
Edit: I live in NYC for 5 years, it of course has shitty areas all over too. Everyone is trying to act like major cities are perfect, crime free areas. Did people forget that the Italian and Irish mobs ran NYC and Philly for decades?!
Having a home invader break into your house and gun you down is not a common occurrence, even in philly. It was a targeted attack.
I didn’t say that was a common occurrence, I was saying violence and murder is common in Philly. It’s literally on the news almost every night.
Of course this was a targeted attack.
What do you mean by “targeted”?
That’s not what they said.
It’s Philly, this is nothing new.
You got selective reading or something?
No, it’s more like people are twisting my words. I simply meant violence and murder is nothing new in Philly. If you read the rest of what I wrote I clearly state that. Whose the one with selective reading?
They said shootings, not your very specific example. You got a reason for your shitty attitude?
This wasn’t someone gunned down in a shootout. This was a homeless and LGBT rights activist who was brutally murdered in his home.
Nothing about that is ordinary.
Is it “ordinary” for anyone in any career to be brutally murdered in their home?
I mean, shootings in bad parts of Philly and Camden aren’t new, but they’re gang-related. This sort of crime detailed in the article is not common, even in Philly. This guy was targeted. Someone he likely knew was in his home, because no one had to break in (I highly doubt he didn’t lock his door), and 7 shots is overkill. Journalists aren’t being targeted like this on the regular.
Source: grew up 20 minutes outside of Philly in South Jersey
These comments are out of control. To be fair though, this AP article is garbage.
The likelihood of this having anything to do with the victim being a queer journalist in Philadelphia is practically zero. Here’s some excerpts from the local paper.
Detectives believe Kruger’s death may have been the result of a domestic dispute or may have been drug-related, according to three law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said police investigators recovered troubling text messages between Kruger and a former partner. Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.
In recent months, he’d written on social media about a variety of alarming incidents at his home.
In April, he posted that an ex-partner had broken into his home. “The door was locked, so he had somehow obtained a copy of my keys,” he wrote. He had allowed the man, whom he’d known for years “before his troubles,” to stay at his house briefly after being released from jail. He said he was able to deescalate the situation and the man eventually left, and he changed his locks.
In August, someone threw a rock through his home window, he said. Then, about two weeks ago, he wrote on Facebook that someone came to his house searching for their boyfriend — “a man I’ve never met once in my entire life.” The person called themselves “Lady Diabla, the She-Devil of the Streets” and threatened him, he wrote.
The conspiracy theories are strong in this thread. Nobody wants to believe that random acts of violence can happen. There always has to be some deeper conspiracy to try and make sense of it, and to feel like there is some semblance of control in our lives.
Bear in mind a lot of the commenters come from a civilised society, where a journalist getting shot is massive fucking news and implies something about his profession getting him killed
People just don’t get shot in modern countries
Except for the fact that this very likely had nothing to do with the victim being a journalist.
People just don’t get shot in modern countries
Uhm… gonna have to refer you to waves hand to entire country
Well, nothing that was written above makes it seem like this was random. This seems to have been very deliberate, but for reasons unrelated to their outreach work.
Right. In a Philly at least, the vast majority of gun violence is targeted and personal. That’s why so much of it is mostly ignored.
“A specific individual waged a campaign of targeted harassment against a person they knew, for 6-12 months, before committing premeditated murder.”
Another act of random violence. Who could have seen it coming.
I think it’s part of their idea that everything wrong in the world comes from America, so if they topple the American capitalist system everything will be fixed.
Random acts of violence don’t fit this narrative, the fact that there will always be psychopaths by sheer fact of the genetic lottery doesn’t fit this narrative, and the downfall of left leaning public figures through no fault of their own or that of some secret cabal of the US government doesn’t fit this narrative.
The fact that bad shit will still need to be fixed and/or corrected for in a “post revolution” world just breaks their brains.
It’s Turner Diaries logic, “no see, once we get rid of them the world will be perfect!”
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yes to all, minus “genetic lottery”
even the the most generous and trusting reading of this would suggest that the US just selling unhinged people guns is possibly something that could be chalked up the cause of this murder. Permissive gun policies in this country and multiple court rulings that police don’t have to take protective measures seriously have degraded people’s ability to have control over their lives.
Even if there was no intent here, this “random act of violence” is the result of generations of failed policies.
Selling more guns than people, just to the fully hinged individuals, would still make it really easy for the unhinged ones to steal one.
Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.
“Party and Play” (PnP) with meth is a thing and it’s as toxic and fucked up as you’d imagine.
If that was what was going on … I can’t say I’m remotely surprised what happened did.
Why speculate? When I see threads like this, that is my one and only thought. It adds no value, muddies the water, and doesn’t rely on evidence.
Why speculate? I’m too autistic for this thread. I don’t speculate. I wait for evidence.
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On his website, he described himself as a “militant bicyclist” and “a proponent of the singular they, the Oxford comma, and pre-Elon Twitter.“
[Emphasis mine] This is such an important issue to me. Contracts have been ruled upon because of the appearance or lack of the Oxford comma (a union got fucked because it wasn’t there). All his other traits are also admirable, but this is the unimportant-important thing that jumped out at me.
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We should be more focused on people not making rash assumptions or accusations prior to all the facts of an event being known.
This has absolutely nothing to do with fascists. I can’t even imagine how you came to that conclusion. It’s being reported as likely being a domestic dispute.
Man, get over yourself, you are just spitting nonsense here.
They will be caught.
“They” are the ones in charge of catching each other, so not likely. Or they’ll find some black homeless person to take the blame and make it look like a robbery rather than a hate crime.
That’s a rather conspiracy theory stance right there
I mean there’s an official FBI report that says it white nationalists have infiltrated police departments and another that says they use their influence to prevent convictions of domestic violence perpetrated by white nationalists. Additionally there are plenty of reports in multiple cities to show that cops often plant evidence to convict people of crimes they didn’t commit in order to aid their career. And the victims are almost always black, usually mentally disabled, and often homeless or home-insecure. So it’s not a stretch.
And I’m not talking about a conspiracy outside of the already proven idea that white nationalists have infiltrated police departments and alter evidence. One cop altering evidence for his buddies isn’t a conspiracy.
And the only thing that could be considered a “theory”/hypothesis is that this was a targeted killing, rather than a random one like the media are already painting it as. And that the police will push that scenario and refuse to investigate white nationalist groups to see which ones sent him threats. We’ll just have to wait and see on that. I suppose it depends on if any witnesses or others go to the media with evidence.
“Cops often plant evidence to get convictions”- Police don’t prosecute, get your conspiracy theories straight.
“This was a targeted killing”
It almost certainly was, the victim was involved in drugs and probably knew violent people and kept in touch with them.
The real case is far more likely to be “reformed drug addict killed by former acquaintance”, than “journalist killed for reporting issues”.
I didn’t say cops prosecute. But if they arrest someone and there’s no evidence, they don’t get credit for catching a criminal, just for throwing an innocent person in jail and that looks bad. So they plant evidence so that anyone they arrest gets convicted and sometimes so the real perpetrator doesn’t. It’s all very well documented. Just no one will arrest them for it since they are mostly all doing the same or have allowed it to happen without doing anything about it.
Again, no. Cops can detain and investigate without making a formal arrest or bringing someone to jail. If it is questionable circumstances, then they will simply take statements and go for an arrest later.
There actually is a circumstance where police are incentivised to plant evidence, and that’s if you have a problematic individual (someone who gets the police called on them regularly), and planting evidence of a more serious crime would remove them from the street.
You make a long of strong claims that require a lot of strong evidence and sources
i know there are incidents, but the US has 300.000.000 people living there, it’s a guarantee that you’re going to have assholes.
You claim it’s structural, that there are groups conspiring together to get this done. That is a big, big claim that better not come from a Facebook page.
Mind linking that FBI report?
I mean the report itself is not available to the public. There was a bulletin sent to police departments that was heavily redacted when released. This was like 15 years ago. Lots of other information has been released over time. The bulletin itself I couldn’t find with a quick Google search, but there is a lot of information about it that you can use Google to find. That’s not my job to prove. It’s not a small amount of info. So Google it. Here’s a link to get you started.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement
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when i first read this, i thought it was the journalist advocating for homless and lgbtq+ to be shot and killed
Same, it took me a second
Two likely senarios:
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It’s someone he knows in the LGBT community who has beef with him over something not related to his activism. Maybe he pissed off someone he was trying to help. Maybe he was caught in a weird romantic triangle. Maybe he just befriended someone who is psycho.
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Or, it’s someone anti-LGBT who did it due to his activism or related to that.
Could be either at this point.
In what world would scenario 1 even be considered an option. Be real.
It’s an option because a majority of victims know their killers personally. Now, that may also mean it’s scenario 2 or a family member or someone they had a bad business deal with or someone random. And I do take issue with the assumption that those two scenarios are the most likely. But it’s not out of the question.
The real world. Are you serious?
Have you ever read a news story or just headlines on social media?Yep, some weeks ago a crazy white guy shot dead an old woman for hanging the rainbow flag outside her store.
Ok. Did you bother to read the article at all before contributing such a stupid comment? No, you did not.
Do better.Gotta love when someone doesn’t have more arguments: “dId yOu ReAd tHe ArTiClE?”
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
While I’d like to believe there’s some grand conspiracy to silence this guy, I actually think it’s more likely this was done by someone he knew or was working with.
I could easily see some angry, deranged homeless person killing a journalist just because he “didn’t like him.”
…do you pay attention to the news at all? The real world is soaked in domestic violence over ideological, especially in the west.
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Everyone knows when a journalist dies, we should look first at the unhoused population.
Unhoused…that’s a fucking stupid term.
People downvoting you cause they don’t like that it’s truly stupid that we have decided to whitewash homelessness with a cute word that doesn’t make you feel as bad.
They are homeless, without a home, without shelter, those that have been pushed from the basic need of private shelter.
If they want to call it unhoused sure, but they are indeed shelterless.
Well, homeless may refer to people who don’t legally possess shelter, while unsheltered or unhoused refers to people who don’t reside in any shelter. I think it is a useful distinction because you do encounter people who consider couch-surfing to be homelessness, even though the physical circumstances are quite different from living on the street.
I have been homeless 3 times in varying ways and for one of them got a hotel once every few days to sleep and shower. I really wasn’t better off for it.
We are homeless because we have no space to be safe and feel protected. We are without a home. And there will never be a perfect word that covers everyone and doesn’t quite cover the nuance. But you paint with a broad brush and fill in the nuance after.
Well I’m the one who used it and I’ve been homeless twice, so I’m glad that falls under acceptable use for you.
It’s a survey term that gets better responses, not a whitewashing or emotionally insulated term.
All ive seen on why I should use unhoused is because conservatives have tried to weaponize the word homeless into a pejorative term to blame the victim. Which means we are picking a new term to make people feel better about the issue and the consensus still seems to be homeless people say homeless.
I would argue people would think being in a shelter makes you stop being unhoused while you are still very much homeless. Homeless reminds you the issue is that we can not get homes, just shelter. But maybe it makes people who feel the same while being better off feel bad idk.
It’s like a return to hoovervilles. Sure there is shelter and it’s quasi housing but I doubt anyone in them at the time would call it a home. It’s not the word that is the problem but how people feel about the issue. A word change won’t change that entirely just confuse the dumber people for a minute while they catch up.
Sorry you don’t like it.
I have been homeless twice, but didn’t really feel it because I was able to get a hotel room and/or able to sleep at my workplace after work. I was working ~80 hours/week, so I was pretty insulated from feeling it, but it took years to realize that I was homeless (I don’t know, I grew up middle class and assumed it couldn’t be me?).
It wasn’t until someone used the term unhoused, that I mentioned how my old boss used to let me and my ex sleep in the bar as long as we were gone by 11, then I realized that it had been me twice.
Homeless technically refers to anyone without a home, but a lot of people who believe they are temporarily between homes would not identify as homeless (not even just out of classism, but not wanting to take resources from people who need them more, etc.). Unhoused tends to get a more complete response
No I for sure understand that unhoused can be used but it has a certain criteria to be used. but people are using a softer term for a serious issue and I hate it when it’s used to gloss over the harsher issue of the homeless like all they are struggling with is not having a home when it’s much more. Homeless and Unhoused are two very different terms.
The article says there were no signs of breaking in, so it is strongly implied that it was someone he was close to.
Yup, which is why I’m inclined towards #1. Newer articles today state people close to him think it’s either domestic or drug related, which again, points more to scenario one.
There’s always a bigger motivator in ideological differences.
Vast majority of violence is interpersonal and someone who was known prior to the violence.
That’s just not true at all. Ideological killings in the west are far less than domestic related ones.
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Umm no it doesn’t…
Right? Makes it sound like a targeted attack specifically because of those issues.
You two are saying different things. The first poster just can’t read. Your point is more valid - we don’t know yet whether this attack was motivated by his activism. Though not unimaginable in the current circumstance.
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Crime is pretty bad in Philadelphia, certainly not a place I would want to live. Though it does beat out St. Louis and Baltimore 3x over in murder rates.
He was shot 7 times. I’d bet this was personal, or that he was specifically targeted.
To be clear, I know nothing other than what I just read in the article, but someone had to really want him dead to shoot him seven times, and no one else i.e. not a mass shooting.
When investigating a crime, and there is overkill like this, it usually points to a personal motive.
I bet when they find the guy he will claim skydaddy told him to do it.
Yep, this doesn’t look like a robbery.
It takes a weekend to learn how to use lock picks to open a door in seconds. I know the police carefully frame it as “or knew how to gain entry”, but it’s not as high a bar as they make it sound.
Ahh, I see I’m not the only fan of the lockpicking lawyer.
Rural crime is pretty bad too. I’ve met literally like one person who was randomly attacked on the streets in Philly. The vast majority of crime is people killing people they know.
Philadelphia has over 3x the homicide rate as the country as a whole. Crime is quite bad in Philly.
TIL homicide is the only crime that exists
Even if we’re talking about violent crime (which, itself is a minority of crime), homicide doesn’t even make up a majority or plurality
It’s a pretty solid metric to start with as it is the hardest to fudge. Homicides will be discovered. Other crimes can easily fly under the radar if nobody reports them.
Can agree. Me and 4 of my friends all had our cars broken into in Houston.
None of us reported it because we felt like there would be no point.
We wouldn’t want ya.
So, what causes crime to rise? What solutions do you offer?
Reduce wealth and income inequality somehow. There’s been no research on UBI reducing crime afaik and honestly I don’t know that it would work for that. People need to feel like they are doing valuable work.
Cops on foot patrol in neighborhoods NOT to punish anyone but literally just to get to know the community and make eye contact.
Access to training and education to promote moving into higher income and responsibility jobs.
Mental health support (although people won’t want help as long as they are Fighting against the system)
There need to be healthy, organic, non-crime non-drug non-gang groups for people to be part of. I don’t know what is are into these days. Basketball? Dancing on Tiktok? Anything social.
Reduce wealth and income inequality somehow.
That’s not the whole story. Singapore is one of the safest countries in the world, and it has one of the highest gini coefficients (i.e. largest income inequality) in the world.
IIRC Singapore has a very specific and controlling demographic control system? Like regions have to have demographic breakdowns that approximate the national numbers or something?
There are a bunch of social engineering things you can do to reduce crime. But good luck trying to tell Americans where they can and can’t move. Probably easier to just tax the super rich.
Yeah, I grew up in South Jersey, about an hour SE and there’s at least one news story about a murder that happened somewhere in Philly each night. Sometimes multiple separate shootings. Most of Philly is a shit hole.
Asshats like you certainly don’t help the Lou be better, you’re welcome to stay away forever while we enjoy our T-ravs
How dare one not want to live somewhere because of… checks statement… high crime rates.
The crime rates are only the downtown city of St. Louis which due to STL’s unique political city/county split makes it an inaccurate comparison to every other city in the nation. Combine our county of city of St. Louis and St. Louis county together, and we’re not as bad as everyone makes us out to be. Every other city gets to use their full city metro area, both they love using St. Louis as a boogeyman because we’re split differently and they can count only the city downtown area for crime
Every other city gets to use their full city metro area
Atlanta doesn’t. The city limits only include about 1/10 the population of the metro area.
I don’t mean to diminish your point, but rather just to mention that we’ve got some of the same sorts of statistical anomalies, too.
Every other city gets to use their full city metro area, both they love using St. Louis as a boogeyman because we’re split differently and they can count only the city downtown area for crime
Says who? I checked the FBI crime statistics. and they have rows for the STL MSA for 2016, 2017, and 2018, though not in the latest one from 2019, probably because they didn’t report the numbers to the FBI.
