PHILADELPHIA (TCD) — Police have reportedly identified a person of interest in connection with the death of a local journalist who was fatally gunned down in his apartment this week.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports police did not publicly name the person of interest and said they do not have a warrant for his arrest, but they do want to speak with him. Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore told the Inquirer investigators think the victim, Josh Kruger, knew the shooter because there were no signs of forced entry.
The person of interest allegedly had drug problems and forced his way into Kruger’s apartment in the past. The two reportedly had been in a relationship, and Kruger reportedly said in an August Facebook post the person “somehow obtained a copy of my keys.”
Kruger was shot Monday, Oct. 2, at approximately 1:30 a.m., and sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Kruger reportedly went outside his home looking for help. When police arrived at his residence on the 2300 block of Watkins Street, he was on the sidewalk, gravely injured. Medics transported him to Penn Presbyterian Hospital, where he died.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement about Kruger’s death, saying, “Josh Kruger lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities — particularly unhoused people living with addiction.”
He added, “Josh deserved to write the ending of his personal story.”
Kruger previously worked in Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration as a spokesman for the Office of Homeless Services.
The District Attorney’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee also released a statement that read in part, “Many of us knew Josh Kruger as a comrade who never stopped advocating for queer Philadelphians living on the margins of society. His struggles mirrored so many of ours — from community rejection, to homelessness, to addiction, to living with HIV, to poverty — and his recovery, survival, and successes showed what’s possible when politicians and elected leaders reject bigotry and work affirmatively to uplift all people.”
In his bio, Kruger said he “uses his unique combination of lived experience with homelessness, addiction, HIV, poverty, and trauma together with over a decade of professional experience in media, politics, and government for compelling storytelling and unparalleled insight into the news.”
The professional biography on his website mixes background and humor. He described himself as a “proponent of the singular they, the Oxford comma, and pre-Elon Twitter. He is a militant bicyclist, Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian and parishioner at St. Mark’s Church on Locust Street, and lives with his best friend, his senior cat with one tooth named Mason.”
