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.

  • StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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!”

      • Gabu@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re not making a very good point for what you think you’re arguing for. If anything, you’re just confirming 'murica is a shithole.

    • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          “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.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Selling more guns than people, just to the fully hinged individuals, would still make it really easy for the unhinged ones to steal one.