Kevin Wiggins

KEVIN WIGGINS, of the 300 block of Sycamore Street, was gunned down as he arrived home from work at 3:00 AM and saw bandits leave a home across the street on June 26, 2008. He was working late hours so he could take his family out of Camden.

Kevin Wiggins was the 29th person murdered in Camden in the year 2008, but perhaps one of the first innocent victims, the great majority of the others having lost their lives while engaged in or as a result of their own criminal actions.

By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS
Courier-Post Staff

Besides telling his children to work hard and make something of their lives, what Kevin Wiggins, 49, wanted most for his children was to leave Sycamore Street, his family said.

It’s no secret that the South Camden thoroughfare, plagued by litter and several graffiti-tagged vacant properties, has problems. Wiggins knew he had to get his family out of there before something happened, his daughter, Tiarra, 22, said.

On Thursday morning, his fears came true.

While coming home from one of his late-night work shifts, Wiggins was shot in the back, around 3:10 a.m. across the street from his house after stumbling upon a home invasion, police said. As the suspects left the house in the 300 block of Sycamore Street, they saw Wiggins.

“They reacted to him being there. Clearly he was an innocent bystander. He wasn’t robbed,” said Camden Police Capt. Richard Minardi. “It is a tragedy. The man was coming home from work.”

When his wife, Juanita, 43, heard the shot, she ran downstairs and heard her husband calling her name. He staggered across the street and collapsed on the steps in front of his home. He was taken to Cooper University Hospital here, where he died. No one in the home invasion was injured.

“He was a hard-working family man. Dedicated,” said Juanita Wiggins, his wife of 17 years. “I didn’t think anything like this would happen to him.”

Kevin Wiggins, who had two jobs, including his own cleaning business, M.V.P. Janitorial, is the city’s 29th homicide in 2008. This time last year, there were 16 homicides.

“He wanted to move us out of the neighborhood. That’s what he worked for. For us to get off the street,” Tiarra said. “I don’t want to stay here anymore.”

The police have no suspects or descriptions of any of the individuals.

“I don’t care about any of that snitchin’ stuff. If anybody knows anything, I hope people talk. I would talk if I knew something,” said Tiarra, who attends Camden Community College and is working toward culinary school.