Kyle Gilmartin took two bullets in the head stopping a gang shootout in Scranton in January 2024.
Now Cognetti is running for Congress – and a photo just tied her directly to the criminals behind that violence wave.
What is in that photo will end her campaign.
The Photo Nobody Asked to See
In November 2024, Cognetti smiled for a photo with Dwight Smith and Damion Williams.
Smith and Williams were the operators of Blueface Global Hookah Lounge in North Scranton – a business Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell had labeled a "notorious hotbed of criminal activity and violent incidents."
That same month, authorities arrested nine people on charges tied to a Crips drug operation running out of the lounge.
Police seized cocaine, methamphetamine, pressed pills suspected of containing fentanyl, a pill press, multiple handguns, and $8,000 cash.
Smith and Williams were both named in the arrests.
Smith had a criminal record dating to 2014 – convictions for theft by deception, drug delivery, and driving under the influence, with sentences totaling years in prison.
Williams pleaded guilty in September 2025 to drug manufacturing and delivery, corrupt organizations, and illegal firearm possession – sentenced to up to 72 months per offense.
Both men are now convicted felons.
Cognetti's spokesperson told Breitbart News that "violent crime has gone down" under her leadership and that she has "expanded the police force."
Nobody asked about the crime statistics.
https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/2068423967216418940
They asked why she was posing with Crips-linked lounge operators while her own city was bleeding.
A Cop Gets Shot and She Builds a Safe Space
Ten months before that photo surfaced, Detective Gilmartin was chasing a gang-related crime spree through West Scranton.
At 4:30 in the morning on January 11, 2024, Aiden Deininger opened fire and put two bullets in Gilmartin's head.
Gilmartin – by the grace of God – survived.
Deininger was sentenced to 25 to 83 years in prison in February 2026.
His accomplice Jeremiah Cleveland got 20 to 43 years.
Cognetti's answer to the city's gang violence problem was to reallocate $580,626 in ARPA funds into what she called a Group Violence Intervention program.
Her own words about it: "By nature, this organization needs to be a safe space for people who have either entered the justice system and don't want to go back in or are coming out of it freshly."
Safe space.
That is the policy response of a Democrat mayoral candidate – whose police detective nearly died from a gang bullet – to the gang problem in her city.
What Cognetti Wants to Bring to Congress
Cognetti is running against freshman Republican U.S. Representative Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro endorsed her.
So did Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
That is who Democrats are rallying behind to send to Washington.
A candidate who posed with two men now convicted of running a Crips drug operation – and whose response to a detective getting shot twice in the head was to build gang members a safe space.
Kyle Gilmartin is still on the job in Scranton.
He deserves better than this.
Sources:
- Jasmyn Jordan, "Dem Mayor Running for Congress Posed with Crips-Linked Lounge Operators Months After Scranton Detective Shooting," Breitbart, June 18, 2026.
- "Nine Suspected Crips Gang Members Arrested for Drug-Trafficking Operation in Scranton," WVIA, November 12, 2024.
- "Drug Bust Deals Blow to Scranton Street Gang," WNEP, November 12, 2024.
- "Men Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Roles in Shooting Ambush of Scranton Police Det. Kyle Gilmartin," WVIA, February 17, 2026.
- "Judge Hands Down Maximum Sentence for 2 Men in Shooting of Scranton Police Detective Kyle Gilmartin," WNEP, February 17, 2026.
