PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City officials held a press conference Tuesday morning and shared some new details regarding the shooting death of Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald, 31, was fatally shot near the corner of 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue on Saturday. Officials said he is the first Temple University police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Officials said Fitzgerald alerted the precinct that he was in pursuit of three young males, dressed in all black and masked. Since there had recently been many robberies and carjackings in the area, officials said he took the initiative and approached them.
They ran and two of them hid, but Fitzgerald got into a tussle with the third individual, 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer. Pfeffer fired several shots, striking Fitzgerald.
When Fitzgerald was on the ground, police said Pfeffer stood over him, shot him three more times, then picked his pockets and unsuccessfully tried to steal his service weapon.
“[You can hear] Officer Fitzgerald say, ‘Go to the ground!’” Homicide Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom said Tuesday, “[and then] a tussle behind an SUV, which is out of camera view.
“You can hear the shot and see the muzzle flash — bang, bang, bang.”
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Another officer, who heard Fitzgerald’s alert over the radio, caught up to the two other males, ages 16 and 17. She took them into custody, and they identified the person who shot Fitzgerald as Pfeffer. The 16-year-old is Pfeffer’s younger brother.
“[The juveniles] provided us relative information that ultimately led to the charges of murder of a law enforcement officer, robbery, possession of instrument of crime and disarming a law enforcement officer,” Ransom said.
After the shooting, police said Pfeffer then stole a car and drove to his father’s house at 29th Street and Ridge Avenue. His mother then picked him up and brought him back to her home in Buckingham Township, Bucks County.
Pfeffer was arrested — in Fitzgerald’s handcuffs — about 12 hours later at the Buckingham Township home. Police also found several guns inside.
Investigators did not disclose whether or not his mother knew about what happened. No charges have been filed against her.
Mayor James Kenney, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, District Attorney Larry Krasner and Temple University President Dr. Jason Wingard, at the press conference, condemned the gun violence plaguing Philadelphia. They pointed to the epidemic as the root of what happened to Fitzgerald, who was alone on patrol that night.
Pfeffer’s preliminary hearing is set for March.
The investigation is ongoing.