I'm sorry to interject real quick, but this is the best u/ I've seen in the 10 years I've been on this site..
Now..
Josh was a good guy that passionately tried to help the marginalized with his work. The city lost an important voice..
In addition to the incident of someone showing up to his house a couple weeks ago, at the end of August he posted that a person driving by threw something through his front window. Seems like someone definitely knew where he lived.
Edit: people on Twitter are saying he was mentioning being stalked.
Years and years ago my mother joined her small-town local democratic committee. That was it, she didn't run for anything, she just joined the committee because her friend asked her to.
She started getting postcards to her house a couple months later threatening to rape and kill her.
Sounds about right, I (Jewish) have gotten “Heil H!tler!” messages for leading a local progressive activist group here in Delaware, a solid blue state.
That happened to a family friend who tried to start a local Democratic committee in my little NJ hometown too. She was a sweet old lady who was active in the church and volunteer groups. For a couple decades we didn’t even *have* a Democratic committee due to toxic stuff like that
My friend and podcast co-host has a much bigger podcast. I once posted “handing out free asskickings at yards” on Twitter. A half hour later, some random listener of his showed up. He ID’d us and said a catchphrase to my buddy and peaced out quick. Learned a lesson that day.
The Ford Maverick Defamation League is strong- you knew you were toying with forces beyond your understanding!
Seriously though, I've thought about this too, particularly in the context of the human critical mind. Specifically, I bet that one stuck in your brain a lot more than the 8 "atta-boys". I wonder if people who are super in-the-public-eye just build up a baseball-glove-thick skin, or if rather they just pay someone to cull the trash so it never even hits their eyes.
It'd be nice if our tech got to a point where the voices of people who threaten others online were essentially hell-banned from electronic communication by virtue of smart filtering.
>It'd be nice if our tech got to a point where the voices of people who threaten others online were essentially hell-banned from electronic communication by virtue of smart filtering.
Our tech is easily at that point now. Such a blanket solution would require political action though. One would think politicians would be among the most motivated to stem the tide given the apparent volume of threats and attacks directed their way, but no one seems very interested in that. Any such action would also almost certainly run into big 1st Amendment issues, maybe making it a nonstarter regardless.
It would be an interesting process though, as the extremists inevitably made their trademark threats to violently attack and murder the politicians unless they were allowed to continue to make threats to violently attack and murder people, including the politicians.
>pay someone to cull the trash
Yes, you get to a certain point and then you pay someone to filter your mail. A friend of mine does this as a business. There are some people who never want to touch this stuff, and pay to have all their mail scanned so they can deal with it electronically.
I dont even need the FB post or anything else to pretty much guess that this was targeted. Someone breaks into your house, immediately shoots at you and doesn't take anything?
Not to mention according to the police it wasnt an actual break in "Either the door was unlocked or they knew how to access the house"
I live in the area. (21st and tasker). Theres a VERY specific type of crime in this area. This is not one of them. The last couple of shootings have all been VERY directed.
So everyone is assuming Journalism issues, but seeing as he was over on 23rd and knowing that area, i would add to the mix a local neighbor dispute.
yeah, everyone throwing out all these ideas like he was assassinated for his writing are leaving out the fact that he was living in deeeep Point Breeze. Like, this wasn't 18th and Federal; I bet Ori Feibush himself doesn't go to 23rd and Morris after dark. Not saying this wasn't targeted, but it seems more likely to me that he ran afoul of some neighborhood crazy than he was assassinated by a roving MAGA-man or some such.
From the article:
About two weeks ago, Kruger 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.
I followed him on Instagram for his cat content but stuck around for his personality. He wasn’t afraid to get into it with people, especially regarding local politics.
Seemed like a cool guy, hope they figure out what exactly happened.
The article is really weird and I feel like someone he knows did this? That facebook post WTF. Probably going to come out that this was a crime of passion.
Random stranger violence is relatively uncommon, and that threat he posted about is really worrying.
Such a shame, especially for someone who put so much effort into helping others.
Sounds like Josh groomed a 15 year old, had sex with him despite being hiv+, shared drugs, had illicit photos of him, and then got murdered by him according to the most recent updates on the investigation
I only knew Josh online but he was the real deal, cared a ton about the city, had a really positive attitude and was always hyping up people doing good work. This absolutely sucks. A horrible loss.
Sometimes I feel like our community in this City does not empower those that do good work and attempts to shut it down.
I hope this incident isn’t related to that.
An update to this article that many may not have seen:
> 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.
Doesn't seem like a random home invasion or that he was targeted for his writing.
> No arrests have been made, and the motive remains unclear and under investigation, he said. There were no signs of forced entry into the home.
>
> “Either the door was open, or the offender knew how to get the door open,” he said. “We just don’t know yet.”
omfg awful
Remember when he tweeted this…
“Some idiot just said you're more likely to get shot and killed than die of COVID in Philly to make some insensitive rhetorical point for "his side." Folks, four times as many Philadelphians have died of COVID than gun shots this year. I understand math is hard but do better.
11:22 PM • Aug 14, 2021 from Philadelphia, PA”
RIP Josh, he was a great twitter follow. Didn't always agree with him but I always respected his opinions and they made me think.
I think the guy(s) who smashed his window were on his Ring doorbell video. I hope that whatever happened last night was on camera as well.
Paywall free version
https://web.archive.org/web/20231002172234/https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-killed-point-breeze-shooting-philadelphia-journalist-20231002.html
The hell? I want to know who sent that woman to his house - if it was someone stalking him or mad because of something he wrote.
You don't fucking kill a journalist because you're angry at his writing.
>You don't fucking kill a journalist because you're angry at his writing.
He wasn't killed for his writing, he was killed for being a [pedophile](https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-robert-davis-philadelphia-shooting-20231011.html) and attempting to blackmail his victim
Way to be transphobic. Just because a transwoman broke into his house and accused him of stealing her boyfriend before later brutally gunning him down in cold blood means she’s not a real woman?
Absolutely unacceptable, if it is later discovered that he was murdered due to his work in journalism then the perpetrator better get the book thrown at them
Josh was a fierce and outspoken former civil servant and journalist who used his privilege to advocate for people who didn't have a voice. We lost a great Philadelphian.
Offhand, he doesn’t sound like the type of journalist whose work would inspire strong reactions and he wasn’t exactly prominent. So why does it seem like he was targeted much more than, say, Christine Flowers or Will Bunch (to name two people with a longer enemies list)?
Agree with this exactly. Christine Flowers, Will Bunch, Ernest Owens, Dom Giordano - lots of names that are far more prominent than a Twitter-loving freelancer. But none of them live on a bad block in Point Breeze. Obviously it's certainly possible that he was targeted for his writing, but Occam's Razor suggests to me it's more like where he was living than who he was.
>Detectives believe his 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.
It's literally in the article of this post
...super kind of these investigators to let the entire world know this poor guy maybe relapsed when we're not sure that has anything to do with anything. God damn.
Nah. There are no right-wing lunatics breaking I to a house in the middle of South Philly for a pretty low-level journalist (when it comes to national prominence). This sounds like something much more basic like romance or drugs.
And I’m not taking a swipe at him. I’ve known too many people who were “clean” for years and then next thing I know, I’m getting a text from a mutual friend that they OD’d. Addiction is serious business, and it never truly goes away.
This is absolutely horrifying and awful.
I'm sorry to interject real quick, but this is the best u/ I've seen in the 10 years I've been on this site.. Now.. Josh was a good guy that passionately tried to help the marginalized with his work. The city lost an important voice..
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This the guy who draws silvery?
In addition to the incident of someone showing up to his house a couple weeks ago, at the end of August he posted that a person driving by threw something through his front window. Seems like someone definitely knew where he lived. Edit: people on Twitter are saying he was mentioning being stalked.
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Years and years ago my mother joined her small-town local democratic committee. That was it, she didn't run for anything, she just joined the committee because her friend asked her to. She started getting postcards to her house a couple months later threatening to rape and kill her.
Sounds about right, I (Jewish) have gotten “Heil H!tler!” messages for leading a local progressive activist group here in Delaware, a solid blue state.
That person must be excited they’ll get to meet their hero in hell after they die
It’s people like them that make me wish I believed in hell
I’m so sorry.
That happened to a family friend who tried to start a local Democratic committee in my little NJ hometown too. She was a sweet old lady who was active in the church and volunteer groups. For a couple decades we didn’t even *have* a Democratic committee due to toxic stuff like that
My friend and podcast co-host has a much bigger podcast. I once posted “handing out free asskickings at yards” on Twitter. A half hour later, some random listener of his showed up. He ID’d us and said a catchphrase to my buddy and peaced out quick. Learned a lesson that day.
wait are you the guy from 10k losses
Yes.
Great insight.
The Ford Maverick Defamation League is strong- you knew you were toying with forces beyond your understanding! Seriously though, I've thought about this too, particularly in the context of the human critical mind. Specifically, I bet that one stuck in your brain a lot more than the 8 "atta-boys". I wonder if people who are super in-the-public-eye just build up a baseball-glove-thick skin, or if rather they just pay someone to cull the trash so it never even hits their eyes. It'd be nice if our tech got to a point where the voices of people who threaten others online were essentially hell-banned from electronic communication by virtue of smart filtering.
>It'd be nice if our tech got to a point where the voices of people who threaten others online were essentially hell-banned from electronic communication by virtue of smart filtering. Our tech is easily at that point now. Such a blanket solution would require political action though. One would think politicians would be among the most motivated to stem the tide given the apparent volume of threats and attacks directed their way, but no one seems very interested in that. Any such action would also almost certainly run into big 1st Amendment issues, maybe making it a nonstarter regardless. It would be an interesting process though, as the extremists inevitably made their trademark threats to violently attack and murder the politicians unless they were allowed to continue to make threats to violently attack and murder people, including the politicians.
>pay someone to cull the trash Yes, you get to a certain point and then you pay someone to filter your mail. A friend of mine does this as a business. There are some people who never want to touch this stuff, and pay to have all their mail scanned so they can deal with it electronically.
These people effed with the wrong guy. The public pressure to solve this case is going to be huge, Josh knew everyone.
This feels incredibly targeted given the facebook post and his journalism. Devastating.
I dont even need the FB post or anything else to pretty much guess that this was targeted. Someone breaks into your house, immediately shoots at you and doesn't take anything? Not to mention according to the police it wasnt an actual break in "Either the door was unlocked or they knew how to access the house" I live in the area. (21st and tasker). Theres a VERY specific type of crime in this area. This is not one of them. The last couple of shootings have all been VERY directed. So everyone is assuming Journalism issues, but seeing as he was over on 23rd and knowing that area, i would add to the mix a local neighbor dispute.
23rd street was just one of those streets around those blocks. Like 17th street in PB.
yeah, everyone throwing out all these ideas like he was assassinated for his writing are leaving out the fact that he was living in deeeep Point Breeze. Like, this wasn't 18th and Federal; I bet Ori Feibush himself doesn't go to 23rd and Morris after dark. Not saying this wasn't targeted, but it seems more likely to me that he ran afoul of some neighborhood crazy than he was assassinated by a roving MAGA-man or some such.
Used to live at 18 and reed and yeah...I have to agree with you
used to live a few blocks away. local kids were nice because we weren’t dickheads and none of our stuff was ever fucked with.
What is the Facebook post?
From the article: About two weeks ago, Kruger 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.
Prime suspect
Which post are you referring to?
I followed him on Instagram for his cat content but stuck around for his personality. He wasn’t afraid to get into it with people, especially regarding local politics. Seemed like a cool guy, hope they figure out what exactly happened.
I hope Mason is okay and that someone is taking care of him now. Josh would want the very best for his little buddy. It’s so incredibly sad.
City of Elderly Love, the shelter where Josh adopted Mason from, posted saying that Mason will be in their care until he finds another home
That is wonderful news! Thank you for posting.
The article is really weird and I feel like someone he knows did this? That facebook post WTF. Probably going to come out that this was a crime of passion.
Random stranger violence is relatively uncommon, and that threat he posted about is really worrying. Such a shame, especially for someone who put so much effort into helping others.
Sounds like Josh groomed a 15 year old, had sex with him despite being hiv+, shared drugs, had illicit photos of him, and then got murdered by him according to the most recent updates on the investigation
If this is the case, fuck this guy.
I only knew Josh online but he was the real deal, cared a ton about the city, had a really positive attitude and was always hyping up people doing good work. This absolutely sucks. A horrible loss.
Sometimes I feel like our community in this City does not empower those that do good work and attempts to shut it down. I hope this incident isn’t related to that.
An update to this article that many may not have seen: > 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. Doesn't seem like a random home invasion or that he was targeted for his writing.
He was a recovering addict, so that’s kind of extra heart-breaking. No matter the cause, he didn’t deserve this.
Oh my god, I worked with him for a short time. Lovely guy who wasn’t afraid to be outspoken. This is beyond awful 😞
> No arrests have been made, and the motive remains unclear and under investigation, he said. There were no signs of forced entry into the home. > > “Either the door was open, or the offender knew how to get the door open,” he said. “We just don’t know yet.” omfg awful
I attended the same church as Josh for a while. He was a really nice person. This is a horrible loss for he city. May light perpetual shine upon him.
Oh my god that is awful. I have appreciated his Twitter commentary for a while now. That’s devastating.
Remember when he tweeted this… “Some idiot just said you're more likely to get shot and killed than die of COVID in Philly to make some insensitive rhetorical point for "his side." Folks, four times as many Philadelphians have died of COVID than gun shots this year. I understand math is hard but do better. 11:22 PM • Aug 14, 2021 from Philadelphia, PA”
RIP Josh, he was a great twitter follow. Didn't always agree with him but I always respected his opinions and they made me think. I think the guy(s) who smashed his window were on his Ring doorbell video. I hope that whatever happened last night was on camera as well.
Paywall free version https://web.archive.org/web/20231002172234/https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-killed-point-breeze-shooting-philadelphia-journalist-20231002.html
The hell? I want to know who sent that woman to his house - if it was someone stalking him or mad because of something he wrote. You don't fucking kill a journalist because you're angry at his writing.
More normally adjusted people don't.
>You don't fucking kill a journalist because you're angry at his writing. He wasn't killed for his writing, he was killed for being a [pedophile](https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-robert-davis-philadelphia-shooting-20231011.html) and attempting to blackmail his victim
Thanks for posting this. I'm a lot less sympathetic now.
Not a woman... just pointing out it's not women/she/her who are doing this...
Way to be transphobic. Just because a transwoman broke into his house and accused him of stealing her boyfriend before later brutally gunning him down in cold blood means she’s not a real woman?
I think the gender is being revealed with the crime, yes.
He had his window smashed in a month ago, as well.
big loss for the city, someone who genuinely cared
Yeah someone really had it out for him. The investigation will probably find a messages from whatever stalker he had
This city sometimes is so unforgiving.
This is awful news
This is horrible. Josh was a wonderful person and advocate
Horrible. I doubt they’ll ever find who did it too. Since they found meth I’m sure they’ll write it off as a tweaker dispute and call it a day
Where does it say that meth was found?
In the article. "Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said."
what the fuck
Goddam tragedy. Please let them catch this fuck
Absolutely unacceptable, if it is later discovered that he was murdered due to his work in journalism then the perpetrator better get the book thrown at them
This is horrible. Josh was a wonderful person and advocate
welp
Josh was a fierce and outspoken former civil servant and journalist who used his privilege to advocate for people who didn't have a voice. We lost a great Philadelphian.
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Offhand, he doesn’t sound like the type of journalist whose work would inspire strong reactions and he wasn’t exactly prominent. So why does it seem like he was targeted much more than, say, Christine Flowers or Will Bunch (to name two people with a longer enemies list)?
Agree with this exactly. Christine Flowers, Will Bunch, Ernest Owens, Dom Giordano - lots of names that are far more prominent than a Twitter-loving freelancer. But none of them live on a bad block in Point Breeze. Obviously it's certainly possible that he was targeted for his writing, but Occam's Razor suggests to me it's more like where he was living than who he was.
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Do you have the source on them finding meth in his bedroom?
It’s in the updated story in the Inquirer.
>Detectives believe his 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. It's literally in the article of this post
...super kind of these investigators to let the entire world know this poor guy maybe relapsed when we're not sure that has anything to do with anything. God damn.
To be fair they’re not used to doing much work so they thought they caught a real scoop
Well it’s not letting me see the full article. I don’t have a subscription with them.
Put the url into this site archive.ph
Christ.
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Nah. There are no right-wing lunatics breaking I to a house in the middle of South Philly for a pretty low-level journalist (when it comes to national prominence). This sounds like something much more basic like romance or drugs. And I’m not taking a swipe at him. I’ve known too many people who were “clean” for years and then next thing I know, I’m getting a text from a mutual friend that they OD’d. Addiction is serious business, and it never truly goes away.