Authorities say 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.

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.

  • Rearsays@lemmy.ml
    756·
    1 year ago

    But who’s committing these crimes, and why so much senseless violence?

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      17145·
      1 year ago

      Probably a “good Christian”, since the fundamentalist are militantly (in a literal sense) against any sort of tolerance, acknowledgement, or compassion being expressed towards people who don’t completely conform to their heteronormative worldview.

      • Chr0nos1@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        I stole this from another poster, but it does indicate that it was probably his ex boyfriend, or drug related, and not a “good Christian” as you imply.

        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.

        https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-killed-point-breeze-shooting-philadelphia-journalist-20231002.html

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            01·
            1 year ago

            Tangentially, my go-to aphorism when some American Christian starts whinging about how “persecuted” they are:

            get off the cross, we need the wood.

            And to be clear: any Christian in the US claiming “persecution” should be viewed with the same seriousness as white, upper-middle class people claiming everyone racist against white property… because both of those claims are categorically bullshit. Nobody in the US wants to or cares about persecuting white people or Christians. We just want all the Nationalist Christians to get the fuck out of our politics and stop trying to push theocratically-derived laws on the rest of us, because just like we don’t want to live under a Sharia legal system, we similarly don’t want to live under a biblical (or Torah-derived, or any-other-religious-text-derived) law system.

        • almar_quigley@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Yes! That’s exactly what you should say to Christians when they start spouting off on their racist, homophobic, or otherwise prejudiced beliefs. You’re a great role model.

          • Nahvi@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            I have done and will continue to call out racial and homophobic bigotry as quickly as I do religious bigotry.

            Unfortunately, as shameful as it is, one of those forms of prejudice is supported by most of the active population here.

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
              0·
              1 year ago

              There is a difference between attacking someone who chooses a disgusting belief system and bigotry. Any adult who remains a Christian knows exactly what the religion with the highest kill count stands for. They decide to ignore that because they get the warm fuzzies once a week for an hour.

              Now go restore Roe v. Wade or you are useless to me.

              • Nahvi@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                1 year ago

                There is a difference between attacking someone who chooses a disgusting belief system and bigotry.

                Bigotry is thinking, what I believe is right and everyone who believes differently is wrong.

                To point at all varieties of Christianity and say, “you are bad,” is being bigoted.

                Now go restore Roe v. Wade or you are useless to me.

                If you want someone useful here are some people that agree with you and will help you fight, assuming you can manage to not call their belief system disgusting to their faces:

                Rev. Angela Williams, a Presbyterian pastor and the lead organizer of SACReD: Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity, told Healthline that faith leaders and religious groups that support abortion rights have been preparing for this moment for a long time.

                https://www.healthline.com/health-news/meet-the-religious-groups-fighting-to-save-abortion-access

                Members of the Episcopal Church (79%) and the United Church of Christ (72%) are especially likely to support legal abortion, while most members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (65%) also take this position.

                https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/01/22/american-religious-groups-vary-widely-in-their-views-of-abortion/

                • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  Episcopalians are less than 2% of the US population. Jewish people and LGBT people are a bigger voting bloc. Using one of the most liberal and one of the smallest Christian denominations as evidence for what Christianity in the US is like is intentionally misleading, when more than 10x as many Americans consider themselves Evangelicals (about 1/4th).

                  • Nahvi@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    0·
                    1 year ago

                    as evidence for what Christianity in the US is like is intentionally misleading

                    If I was trying to claim that is that standard view, then it would be misleading. Since I was actually claiming that there are a wide variety of beliefs among Christians, some even aligning with your values, it is pretty spot on representation. Treating them all the same is prejudicial behavior.

                    A fair-minded person would give an individual a chance to act like an asshole before treating them like trash.

              • Nahvi@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                1 year ago

                It is unfortunate that you think so, there is a lot of wisdom in the various world religions.

                We may be beyond the need for religion, but I doubt even that.

            • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              01·
              1 year ago

              Well hey maybe religious people should stop consistently hurting other humans and society in general because they think their imaginary friend would be down with it.

              • Nahvi@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                1 year ago

                It sounds an awful like you are saying, “Well yeah, we are bigots, but we are bigots because they deserve it!”

                Am I misunderstanding you?

                • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  01·
                  1 year ago

                  Yes, you are misunderstanding me.

                  I’m saying that religion has a richly documented history of intolerance and repression, up to and including the present day. I am simultaneously saying that I am intolerant of intolerance.

                  I feel like you should read up on this if you’re still struggling to wrap your head around the nuance of what pretty much everyone else in this comment tree besides yourself is expressing.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          01·
          1 year ago

          Nope, my pointed disdain for backwards, illogical, regressive, exclusionary, predatory cults is showing. I don’t have a problem with religious people as long as they don’t force their shit onto others. Nationalist Christians are trying to force their bullshit theocracy onto the whole country, and that’s very fucking far from ok.

          For the record, I was raised catholic, and I noped the fuck out of that bullshit once I got old enough to ask incisive questions. Maybe you should too.

        • Dkcecil91@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          Not all that strange, just go by a planned parenthood and check out the crazies accosting people outside of those.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1633·
      1 year ago

      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?!

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          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.

            • ABCDE@lemmy.world
              2·
              1 year ago

              They said shootings, not your very specific example. You got a reason for your shitty attitude?

            • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              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?

      • prole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        142·
        1 year ago

        If you were halfway between Philly and Atlantic City, you were too far away from Philly to pretend to be an expert. But keep using that weak anecdotal “evidence” to continue your ignorant views on urban areas.

        Saying “Everything but Center City has always been a shit hole” gives you away. You have no fucking clue. Probably been at least a decade since you’ve driven within 30 miles of the city.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          So apparently the ABC nightly news is “anecdotal evidence”. My aunt lives in Philly, my brother’s works there frequently, I’m pretty aware of how Philly is.

          • prole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            It’s sensationalist, absolutely.

            edit: ok you’re right, the ABC Nightly News isn’t sensationalist. 🙄

            I also like how immediately after you claim it’s not anecdotal, you talk about how you know people who live there lol

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
        8·
        1 year ago

        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