PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As investigators learn more about the shooting and killing of Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald on Saturday night near the university’s campus, a makeshift memorial in his honor grew by the hour Monday.
Family, friends, students and neighbors dropped off heart-shaped balloons, burning prayer candles, wrapped flowers, and notes with the words “I love you Chris” and “I’m so sorry” at the corner of Montgomery Avenue and Bouvier Street, just steps from where Fitzgerald was killed.
“It’s just painful. It’s painful. He was a hero with no cape,” said Fitzgerald’s cousin, Juan Marrero. He said Fitzgerald, a husband and father of four, pushed him to graduate and get his diploma.
“These are people shedding tears because of the work [Chris did] and what a person Chris was, a great wonderful person. A light in a dark world," said Marrero.
Fitzgerald, 31, would stop and play basketball with kids from the neighborhood when he could.
Gaynell Gillespie had just dropped off cupcakes to Temple police last week
“He said, ‘Well, thank you guys. Thank you so much,’” said Gillespie. “We said, ‘No, thank you. Thank you guys for all that you do.’ We just want to show a little love.”
Fitzgerald worked at the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office for a few years before joining Temple University Police more than a year ago. His colleagues called him charismatic, compassionate and dedicated, and he would be the last person they would expect to lose this way.
“He was a police officer, or should I say a peace officer? I think that pretty much sums it up,” said 22nd District Police Capt. Michael Goodson, who said he has known Fitzgerald’s family for years.
“You can’t place a measure on a loss such as this. At the end of the day, although we wear the uniform as police officers, the commonality is that we’re all human beings. We laugh and in this instance, we’re hurting. We’re crying.”
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“He lost his life,” said Ricky Mann, who lives nearby.
“Anything that somebody wants, any material possessions, they can get that back. But his life, which is so precious, can’t get that back.”
Suspect Miles Pfeffer, 18, has been charged with his murder.
Police say Fitzgerald tried to stop him after a grocery store robbery, and that's when Pfeffer turned and fired several shots. When Fitzgerald was on the ground, police say Pfeffer stood over him, continued shooting him in the face and torso, and then picked his pockets and tried to steal his service weapon.
Sources say Pfeffer then stole a car and drove to his father’s house at 29th Street and Ridge Avenue, and that’s where his mother picked him up and brought him back to her home in Buckingham Township, Bucks County.
He was arrested in Fitzgerald’s cuffs about 12 hours later.
It was unclear whether his mother knew about what happened. She has not been charged.
Officials say Fitzgerald is the first Temple University police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
A press conference is planned for Wednesday morning with city officials, police, the District Attorney, and federal authorities.
Funeral plans have also been announced for Fitzgerald.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 says that public viewings for Fitzgerald will happen Thursday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at John F. Givnish Funeral Home at the corner of Academy Road and Chalfont Drive, and on Friday from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul near Logan Circle on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
A funeral will happen just after the Friday morning viewing at the Cathedral Basilica.
His body will be interred immediately following the service at Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley.