Police arrest an election canvasser for killing a colleague in Chester
Nathan Thurmond-Willis was arrested in the murder of Kenny Mister, police said.
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A Pittsburgh man who allegedly shot two men, killing one, outside a Delaware County hotel while canvassing for the presidential election has been arrested, investigators said Tuesday.
Nathaniel Thurmond-Willis, 23, was charged with first- and third-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses in the slaying of Kenny Mister, 31, in the parking lot of the Days Inn in Chester on Oct. 27.
There was no indication that Thurmond-Willis had hired an attorney. He remained in custody in Allegheny County and was expected to be extradited to Chester on Jan. 26, according to police.
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Thurmond-Willis had traveled across the state with Mister and Najee Walker, 31, investigators said. The three had been hired by a company to solicit people in Chester to sign up to vote, and were being paid for each signature they collected.
At the end of their time in the city, Thurmond-Willis allegedly got into a dispute with Mister — who had hired him and Walker — over the money he was being paid. That argument led to a fight, which spilled out into the hotel’s parking lot, according to law enforcement sources.
Thurmond-Willis shot the two other men multiple times before fleeing the scene, police said. Medics responding to reports of the shooting took Mister to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
In a nearby parked car, officers found Walker shot in the abdomen. Walker, who lives in California, told detectives what happened after being treated at Crozer-Chester.
The shooting took place at the end of the final day that voters in Pennsylvania were able to request absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
Mister, a Florida resident, grew up in Fresno, Calif., and operated a club promotion company called Tu Turnt Entertainment, according to his Facebook page.
Mister had spent most of 2020 traveling America on behalf of political campaigns, including a stop in Illinois to gather signatures for Kanye West’s failed bid for president. He posted pictures of himself traveling throughout the country in the weeks before the election, including a stop in St. Louis.