State Senator Noah Kemp, under a cloud of suspicion after his role in a plot to skim federal funds from education programs was revealed by an online activist, was found shot inside his home Monday evening.
Police described Kemp’s wounds as “superficial” and law enforcement sources said he was wearing a Kevlar vest at the time someone shot him.
Police wouldn’t disclose many details about the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation. Fire department officials said Kemp was taken by ambulance to Wexford Hospital where he was listed in good condition.
The chaotic scene unfolded Monday evening, on the eve of Kemp’s expected reelection to the state Senate, at Kemp’s Bradford Woods home. Kemp had returned from a rally in a downtown park, according to police sources. It’s not clear why Kemp was wearing a vest, or for how long he had been wearing one. A spokesperson for Kemp’s office declined to comment.
Police sources told The Ledger that someone shot Kemp twice in the torso, and that both rounds were stopped by his vest. Police flooded the area after the shooting because of erroneous reports of an active shooter in the neighborhood. Police wouldn’t say if a report of shots fired a few doors away, about the same time as the shooting, was related.
Kemp is the third prominent man in Pittsburgh political circles to be shot since allegations of wrongdoing against him were made public by an online activist using the moniker “NO/ONE.” Two earlier shootings – of pharmaceutical magnate Dr. Julian Colon and tech finance entrepreneur Edwin Lin – remain unsolved.
The three represent disparate but tangled interests in the city’s political circles and all were accused, in leaked documents, of various financial and moral transgressions. Police wouldn’t say whether Kemp’s shooting was related to the other two, but the homicide detectives handling those are also investigating Kemp’s shooting.
After ballistic testing on shell casings found at the two other scenes tied those shootings to the same weapon, some detectives started calling their suspect the “accountability killer” even as elected officials have decried the nickname and the brand of vigilante justice he appears to represent. Police brass, officially, have only said they believe their suspect is responsible for the two previous shootings and haven’t commented publicly on motive.
Thomas McGarrity, a city police lieutenant in the investigations branch, briefed reporters late Monday outside the hospital. His squad investigated Colon’s murder in the small Squirrel Hill North neighborhood earlier this year, and was assigned the murder of Lin when it appeared the two might be of a pattern.
McGarrity wouldn’t say Kemp’s shooting was connected to the two others – but his involvement in the case suggests this will fold into his two other investigations. At the press conference Monday, McGarrity said there was “some struggle” before the gunfire but wouldn’t elaborate.
Police released still images from surveillance cameras along a busy stretch of Lancaster Avenue near Kemp’s home, of a person they described as a “person of interest,” though none show the person’s face and police officials wouldn’t answer questions about the images at an afternoon press conference outside the hospital.
“This person should be considered armed and dangerous,” McGarrity said. “At this time we won’t be sharing any further information.”
Earlier in the day, Kemp had given a speech decrying crime and disorder in Pittsburgh and said he was “alarmed by the lack of safety and general security that so many in my home state are feeling.”
During the speech, he recounted the story of a constituent who’d been robbed at knifepoint while he was with his son. The attacker took the man’s money but also his son’s bicycle.
“I understand why this young father asked me to share his story. It was to show why we all need to find a way to protect ourselves. To no longer feel powerless like this man had felt,” Kemp said. “To no longer be made a victim, especially in front of a child. His child lost more than his bike, he lost a sense of innocence, and as a society we must do more to protect our children.”
Despite the controversy surrounding Kemp, he remains popular in his district, which covers part of the downtown area where he gave his speech Monday afternoon. Despite being ostracized by establishment politicians from both parties in the state Senate. He ran his campaign without help from legislative leaders and without the backing of the city’s party that slates candidates.
The allegations against Kemp are part of a sprawling public corruption probe that federal officials have refused to publicly acknowledge. Sources told The Ledger that the allegations against Kemp – that he schemed to steal federal development funds earmarked for new education programming – was one part of a multi-faceted investigation looking at other lawmakers and reputed members of organized crime.
No one has faced charges; all whose names have appeared in connection with the projects have denied wrongdoing. The education projects are on hold, as the federal Department of Education audits the program’s finances. Kemp, and Kemp’s chief of staff, have previously denied wrongdoing, calling the allegations first surfaced by the online activist a “slur against his good record.”