Police identify person of interest in killing of local journalist Josh Kruger

Philadelphia police have identified a person of interest in the death of Josh Kruger, a journalist and advocate who was shot and killed inside his Point Breeze home this week.

Police are searching for a man — whom they declined to identify — who they believe may have information on what happened to Kruger, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore. An arrest warrant has not been issued, he said, but detectives want to bring the man into custody and ask him some questions.

Vanore said investigators have not identified a motive for the killing, but they believe the shooter was someone Kruger knew.

“We don’t want to close any doors,” he said. “We’re working hard to try and fortify that person of interest.”

Multiple law enforcement sources told The Inquirer that preliminary evidence and interviews indicate the killing may have been domestic in nature, or drug-related. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the man police are searching for had previously broken into Kruger’s home and was struggling with drug addiction.

» READ MORE: Local journalist Josh Kruger fatally shot inside Point Breeze home

Kruger, 39, was killed Monday after police say someone entered his home just before 1:30 a.m. and shot him multiple times at the base of his stairs. The shooter fled, police said, and Kruger ran outside seeking help. Officers found him collapsed on the sidewalk on the 2300 block of Watkins Street, and rushed him to Penn Presbyterian Hospital, where he died a short time later.

Vanore said there were no signs of forced entry to the house. Whoever shot Kruger, he said, either knew how to get in, or the door was left unlocked.

Kruger, who worked for the city for five years before returning to freelance journalism, had posted about a number of troubling incidents at his home in recent months. In August, someone threw a “glass egg” through his home window, he wrote on Facebook. And in April, he posted that a man he’d previously had a relationship with broke into his home.

“The door was locked, so he had somehow obtained a copy of my keys,” Kruger said. He deescalated the situation and the man eventually left, and he said he planned to change the locks. “Drugs can help but also exacerbate mental health problems,” he wrote, adding that he would still seek to show kindness “to people who need help.”

Police sources said Kruger had told friends that he continued to have issues with the man, who struggled with a meth addiction and continued to show up at his house.

Vanore declined to say whether that same man who broke into the home in April was the person of interest, but said detectives are “certainly looking at those incidents.”

“We spoke to a lot of his friends and relatives, and they shared some information,” he said.

Drawing on his life experiences, Kruger was a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ community and people living with HIV, and fought for greater support for people experiencing homelessness and addiction. His work and writing on issues including housing insecurity, harm reduction, and city and state politics earned him a large following on social media. News of his death left many in the city heartbroken and confused.

“Josh cared deeply about our city and its residents, which was evident both in his public service and in his writing,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “His intelligence, creativity, passion, and wit shone bright in everything that he did — and his light was dimmed much too soon.”

Other friends spoke of the hardships Kruger had overcome in his life, and how he leveraged those experiences to fight for the city’s most vulnerable.

“Josh overcame so much to get where he was, and his work was largely focused on helping others facing his same struggles,” a friend, Louis Peitzman, wrote.

Kruger especially loved cats, and often took in hard-to-adopt seniors with FIV, the feline version of HIV. His most recent companion and “best friend” was a one-toothed cat named Mason. Kruger’s family is working to find Mason a new home.