Robert Edward “Bobby” Kramer Jr., a 22-year-old male from Westland near Hickory, Pennsylvania, died on Sunday, April 17, 2016, after a family gathering turned deadly in the Westland area of Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County. He had been born in Washington, Pennsylvania, and was remembered in his obituary as a Fort Cherry High School graduate who worked as a laborer for a temp service and loved playing football and basketball.
He was also a son, brother, friend, and father to a young daughter.
The shooting happened during a backyard family picnic at a residence on Meadow Street. What began as a family cookout became tense after Kramer and his cousin, 28-year-old Joshua Moss, argued over a set of car keys. Witnesses and police said the disagreement stretched on for hours, and relatives later said alcohol was involved. The situation escalated beyond shouting: according to accounts from investigators, Moss first went after Kramer with a knife, but family members intervened and separated them.
After that confrontation was broken up, Moss allegedly went inside or retrieved a shotgun from the home. The argument then ended in a single violent moment when Kramer was shot in the chest, with some reports describing the wound as involving the neck and chest. Emergency responders were called, but Kramer was fatally wounded at the scene. The Washington County coroner identified him as the victim, and authorities described his cause of death as a gunshot wound.
Police took Joshua Moss into custody at the scene. He was initially charged with homicide, and later court proceedings also included a firearms-related charge, described in reports as unlawful possession of a firearm or a firearms violation. At a preliminary hearing later that month, Moss was ordered to stand trial in connection with Kramer’s death. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in the case.
In October 2016, Moss admitted responsibility in court by pleading guilty to third-degree murder and a firearms violation. The hearing was emotional, with Kramer’s family confronting the pain of losing him to someone within their own family. Kramer’s father, Robert Kramer Sr., addressed Moss directly in court, calling the act cowardly and questioning how Moss could do that to his son. Other relatives also struggled aloud with the same question: why it happened at all.
The case did not remain unsolved. Joshua Moss was the identified suspect, he was arrested the night of the shooting, and he later pleaded guilty to killing his cousin. The available reports describe the death as the result of a family dispute that spiraled from an argument over car keys into a fatal shotgun shooting, leaving Robert Kramer Jr.’s family to grieve a young man killed during what had begun as an ordinary family picnic.
