The bullet was not meant for Anton Kemaev. 

The 35-year-old Russian fitness trainer was in the passenger seat of a car on Second Avenue in South Oakland at 6 p.m. Dec. 19 when he was shot in the head. Another bullet struck the car’s radiator. 

Neither Mr. Kemaev nor the car’s driver, who has not been publicly identified, was the intended target of the shooting, Pittsburgh police said. The case remains unsolved.

The driver, who at first thought the car had been struck by a rock, was not hurt. A close friend of Mr. Kemaev, he called 911, drove across the Hot Metal Bridge and met police. Mr. Kemaev was in critical condition at UPMC Presbyterian for nine days.

The first few days in the hospital, his friends asked him to squeeze their hands if he could hear them, and sometimes he did — but the doctors said it was just a reflex, a symptom of a dying brain, said another friend, Vladimir Shlyakhtin of Greenfield.

Mr. Kemaev’s wife of 13 years, Olga Kemaeva, flew from Russia to Pittsburgh to be with him, leaving their three children behind. Mr. Kemaev died Thursday; five days later his wife still hadn’t told their children he was gone.

“He was a great human,” she said Tuesday through a translator. “He was my life.”

Mr. Kemaev was a world traveler, a vegetarian, climbed mountains in Nepal and spent a month in Japan studying longevity.

And in his death, Mr. Kemaev brought new life to four people, including a 35-year-old Army National Guard veteran from Minnesota.

***

John Bond, 35, waited for a kidney for nearly three years.

He’d developed kidney disease in 2007 while in basic training, and left the Army National Guard as a sergeant in failing health. He’d been on the transplant list for almost three years, on dialysis since September, in renal failure.

The call came about 8 p.m. local time Friday in Apple Valley, Minn., said his wife, Erin, 33. They were on a chartered flight 30 minutes later, flying to a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs facility in Pittsburgh. They found out the donor was a 35-year-old Russian who had died from a gunshot wound.

Curious, Ms. Bond’s family checked around on Google and discovered Mr. Kemaev’s story. They were struck by the similarities: both families have three kids, both men were 35 years old. They can’t say for sure that Mr. Kemaev is their donor, but they believe he is.

“It was heartbreaking,” Ms. Bond said. “My mother found the story and we both started crying. You just realize the loss that someone has to go through in order for you to gain life.”

The surgery was a success. Ms. Bond and her husband have a few more days in the hospital, then a few more days of recovery in Pittsburgh before heading home.

She would love to give Ms. Kemaeva a hug.

***

Mr. Kemaev’s organs saved four lives, Mr. Shlyakhtin said. It’s brought a small measure of solace to his wife, and he’s sure it’s what his friend would have wanted.

Mr. Kemaev was a giving man, always willing to help, said another friend, Nicole Miller of Squirrel Hill.

“When we found out [about the organ donation] we were so excited,” she said. “We did feel uplifted. Like, ‘That’s Anton, still helping.’ Like this was part of the rest of his mission. He is helping someone, and maybe they’ll pay it forward by doing something to help someone else.”

Mr. Kemaev was in the U.S. on a tourist visa, Ms. Miller said, and had visited Chicago and New York City. He’d hoped to go on to Alaska before heading home in early January, she said.

He had construction jobs in Russia and was working to bring CrossFit, the popular fitness regimen, there, Mr. Shlyakhtin said. Mr. Shlyakhtin owns side-by-side houses in Greenfield; Mr. Kemaev stayed in one during his visit.

On the day of the shooting, Mr. Kemaev visited Downtown with a friend and was headed back to Greenfield. Typically, he’d have ridden a bicycle to make the trip, Mr. Shlyakhtin said, but that day was bitter cold, so he got a ride.

“He was a young, healthy person, he was in the passenger seat and he got a bullet in the head,” he said. “It’s terrible gun violence.”

The driver could not be reached for comment; Mr. Shlyakhtin said the man was in shock.

Ms. Miller began a fundraising campaign after the shooting — at first to help with Mr. Kemaev’s medical expenses but now to support his family — and has raised more than $10,000. She drives Second Avenue often; the shooting deeply unsettled her.

“It’s not as if he was in a bad neighborhood doing something illegal, buying or selling something,” she said. “It’s hard for me to comprehend that this could actually happen. Because it could happen to anyone. It’s not as though he is is putting himself in a risky situation. He was driving in Pittsburgh in rush hour.”

Shelly Bradbury: 412-263-1999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow @ShellyBradbury on Twitter.

First Published: January 3, 2018, 1:17 a.m.