Family of slain Temple Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald seeks the death penalty for his alleged killer

The family of slain Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, who authorities say was shot and killed by 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer last year, said Tuesday that Pfeffer should be sentenced to death if convicted.

Shortly after seeing Pfeffer in court for the first time since his arrest 11 months ago, Fitzgerald’s family gathered outside the courthouse and called on District Attorney Larry Krasner to seek the death penalty in the case.

“What we’d like to see is this person to go through the pain that our son went through, to go through the suffering that our family is going through,” Joel Fitzgerald, a former Philadelphia police officer, said of his son’s alleged killer.

“It meets every threshold of the death penalty,” he said. “We’ll be waiting with bated breath to hear from the district attorney to see what they decide.”

Krasner has long said he opposes the death penalty, and last year — just two days before Fitzgerald was killed — Gov. Josh Shapiro said the death penalty should be abolished in Pennsylvania.

Joel Fitzgerald said he wants Krasner to make a decision before Pfeffer’s next court appearance, on Feb. 13.

Jane Roh, a spokesperson for Krasner’s office, declined to comment.

Pfeffer, now 19, appeared in court Tuesday morning for the first time since police say he shot Fitzgerald multiple times in the face and chest at close range on the evening of Feb. 18.

» READ MORE: City to name city block for slain Temple police Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald

Prosecutors have said Fitzgerald, 31, spotted Pfeffer and two others that night, dressed in black clothing and wearing face masks, near 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue. The area had recently experienced a rash of carjackings and robberies, and so at 7:12 p.m., Fitzgerald announced over police radio that he was going to make a pedestrian stop.

Pfeffer fled, and Fitzgerald chased after him. After a brief struggle, police say, Pfeffer pulled out a pistol and shot Fitzgerald multiple times, killing him.

A fellow Temple police officer heard the shots and chased down the two teens who had been with Pfeffer, one of whom was his younger brother. Pfeffer then carjacked a man a few blocks away, and used the car to flee to his father’s house in Brewerytown, then to his mother’s home in Bucks County, police said.

Law enforcement officials caught up with him at his mother’s Buckingham Township home the next morning. A senior in high school at the time, Pfeffer was arrested and charged with murder, murder of a law enforcement officer, robbery, and weapons violations.

He has been jailed without bail at Riverside Correctional Facility since that day.

On Tuesday, Pfeffer, dressed in a black hoodie and light wash jeans, walked into the courtroom, briefly looking back at the crowded gallery before taking a seat next to his public defenders. Behind him sat dozens of Temple police officers and Fitzgerald’s loved ones.

Pfeffer waived his right to a preliminary hearing, allowing the case to head to trial.

He answered questions briefly and with little emotion.

“Do you understand why you’re here today?” Prosecutor Joanne Pescatore asked him.

“I do,” he said.

Within five minutes, the hearing was over.

Marissa Fitzgerald, wearing her husband’s Temple officer jacket, began to cry as Pfeffer walked out of the courtroom to be escorted back to jail.

Seeing him and hearing him speak for the first time, she said, was upsetting.

“No empathy, just an evil human being,” she said through tears.

Pfeffer’s family, covering their faces as they left the courthouse, declined to speak with reporters. His lawyers also declined to comment.

Marissa Fitzgerald and her mother- and father-in-law said they were upset that the preliminary hearing had been delayed four times, something they said was a “privilege” extended to Pfeffer.

All four rescheduled appearances were requested by Pfeffer’s defense lawyers, not prosecutors. Joel Fitzgerald said prosecutors should have pushed for an earlier hearing.

In the meantime, he said, his family — like thousands of others in the city who have lost loved ones to shootings — is left to navigate a life with only memories of Fitzgerald: a father of four and avid runner who had marched against gun violence. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

“He stayed because he cared, he stayed because he wanted to make a difference,” Joel Fitzgerald said of his son. “And then a monster took his life.”