PHILADELPHIA — Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald was patrolling an area near campus Saturday night that had experienced a rash of recent carjackings and robberies when he noticed three people wearing black clothing with masks over their faces.
Fitzgerald, working alone and in uniform, decided to approach the young men on foot. And around 7:12 p.m., he reported over police radio that he was going to make a pedestrian stop on the 1800 block of Montgomery Avenue in North Philadelphia.
That prompted Philadelphia Police Corporal Theresa Brooks — who was listening to the radio at the nearby headquarters of the 22nd District — to leave the building to help Fitzgerald.
As she walked toward him, she heard gunshots.
Brooks then saw two teens running and stopped them. Not long after that, she heard that Fitzgerald had been shot, and helped take the teens to the Police Department’s homicide unit for questioning.
One of them was the younger brother of Miles Pfeffer, who had been captured on surveillance video shooting Fitzgerald near the intersection of 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue — knocking him to the ground, then standing over him and firing three more times as the officer lay on the street.
The two teens who had been with Pfeffer before the attack provided key information that led investigators to the 18-year-old, who went on to commit a carjacking and flee the crime scene — first to his father’s house in North Philadelphia, then to his mother’s home in Bucks County. He was arrested at the family’s bucolic Boxley Farm property Sunday.
Those details, offered by city officials Tuesday during a news conference, provided the most complete account yet of a crime that stunned the city and led to murder charges against Pfeffer in connection with Fitzgerald’s death. And they came as emotions around the incident continued to run high: Mayor Jim Kenney and Jennifer Griffin, Temple’s vice president for public safety, were among those who choked back tears Tuesday while praising the 31-year-old father of four.
“Through his final act as a police officer, being proactive in our community, the community that he loved, he was working to change the trajectory of increased violence in Philadelphia,” Griffin said. “And now it is up to us to continue this work.”
“This was an extremely terrible weekend,” Kenney said. “And there are no words to express how heartbroken we are by this extraordinary loss.”
Pfeffer remained in jail without bail Tuesday, facing charges including murder, murder of a law enforcement officer, robbery, and weapons violations. A man who answered the door at his father’s house Tuesday declined to answer questions, and Pfeffer did not have an attorney listed in court documents.
At the Fitzgerald family’s Mayfair home, loved ones and fellow police officers, some carrying batches of food, approached in waves Tuesday afternoon. Two patrol cars, one from Philadelphia Police and one from Temple Police, sat parked in the street, their lights flashing.
Exhausted by grief, the Fitzgerald family declined an interview. But they have publicly recalled him as a good man, a loving father, and an officer dedicated to the profession and the city where he grew up. Fitzgerald’s father, Joel, spent 17 years with the Philadelphia Police Department before moving on to higher-profile law enforcement positions across the country.
Fitzgerald’s killing prompted Kenney to again criticize state legislators over what he views as their failure to pass gun control measures. At one point during Tuesday’s news conference, he relayed an anecdote about watching an elderly man show identification and abide by a four-bottle limit on the sale of wine at a suburban Wegmans, saying: “If we control guns like we control the sale of liquor and wine, we’d be in much better shape than we are now. It’s ridiculous.”
Temple president Jason Wingard, meanwhile, said gun violence was “ravaging” Philadelphia and threatening the university’s ability to safely provide its students with a world-class education.
“Our academic community needs the safety, needs the protection, that our university deserves,” he said. “I can’t uphold my mandate, we can’t fulfill our mission, if we cannot keep our (community) safe.”
And District Attorney Larry Krasner said of Fitzgerald: “This city is shook and suffering because a really good person is gone.”
Tensions remained high in the neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon, as a 17-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl walking home from school were shot on the 1900 block of Montgomery Avenue, just blocks from where Fitzgerald was slain. Specifics of the shooting, including the motive, remained unclear, and no arrests have been made, but police said the boy was in critical condition, while the girl was stable after being shot in the arm.
Earlier Tuesday, Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, commander of the Police Department’s homicide unit, said the incident that claimed Fitzgerald’s life began around 7:12 p.m. on the 1800 block of Montgomery Avenue, where he encountered the three young men wearing black clothes and masks.
As Fitzgerald tried to stop them on foot, they ran away, Ransom said, and Pfeffer headed east. Fitzgerald pursued him, and notified police radio.
Pfeffer then shot Fitzgerald near the intersection of 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue, an act that was partially captured on video, Ransom said.
“You can hear the shots and see the muzzle flash: ‘Bang, bang, bang,’” Ransom said. After Fitzgerald fell down, Ransom said, “Pfeffer then shoots the officer as he is on the ground, three additional shots: ‘Bang, bang, bang.”
Pfeffer then started to run away, but turned around and tried to steal Fitzgerald’s handgun, Ransom said. He failed, then ran north on 18th Street, where Ransom said he stole a man’s Infinity Q60 at gunpoint, telling the owner: “Give me the car or I’ll kill you.” He drove the car to the 1900 block of North 30th Street, near his father’s house.
Back near the crime scene, Ransom said, Brooks — the police corporal assigned to the 22nd District — had encountered the two teens running after she’d heard gunshots. When the two boys — one of whom was Pfeffer’s younger brother — were taken to homicide, they were questioned, shown portions of the video depicting the crime, and identified Pfeffer as the shooter, Ransom said.
By then, Pfeffer had called his mother and asked to be picked up from his father’s house and taken back to her home in Buckingham Township. It is not clear what Pfeffer may have told them, if anything, about the crime.
Ransom said Pfeffer, after he was arrested, spoke to detectives and “provided us with relevant information” that led to his charges.
Fitzgerald is set to be honored at several services later this week. A viewing is scheduled for Thursday, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at John F. Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Rd., in Northeast Philadelphia. A second viewing on Friday from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 1723 Race St., in Center City, will precede a Mass. Burial will follow at Forest Hills Cemetery, 101 Byberry Rd., Huntingdon Valley.
