What we know about the Temple police officer shooting

A Temple University police officer was shot and killed Saturday night in what officials say is the first fatal shooting of a campus police officer.

An 18-year-old man from Bucks County was arrested Sunday morning and charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the fatal shooting of Temple Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, authorities said.

His killing comes amid mounting concerns about safety on and around Temple’s North Philadelphia campus.

Here’s what we know and don’t know.

Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, 31, was shot and killed shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday during an altercation near 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue near the campus border. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital at 7:27 p.m., becoming the first campus officer killed in the line of duty, school officials said.

Fitzgerald was in pursuit of three people he saw while investigating carjackings and robberies in the area when he was killed, Philadelphia Police Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom said Tuesday.

Fitzgerald attempted to conduct a pedestrian investigation when all three people fled on foot. The Temple officer was about to catch up with one suspect, whom police later identified as Miles Pfeffer. Pfeffer has since been charged with murder in Fitzgerald’s death.

In security footage of the incident, Fitzgerald can be heard ordering Pfeffer onto the ground before shots ring out, Ransom said. Pfeffer allegedly shot Fitzgerald again while he was on the ground, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove the officer’s handgun.

U.S. Marshals and local authorities arrested Pfeffer, 18, around 7 a.m. Sunday at his mother’s house in Buckingham Township, Bucks County, and transported him back to Philadelphia.

Authorities said the charges against him include murder and murder of a law enforcement official, among others. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said Pfeffer was involved in an armed carjacking after shooting Fitzgerald and that the officer was not shot while trying to stop a carjacking, as police initially reported Saturday night.

» READ MORE: A Bucks County teen is charged with killing a Temple University police officer and father of four

Pfeffer attended school in Central Bucks School District until September 2019. He was arrested last year for making threats that closed a high school in the district in November 2021, law enforcement sources said Monday. Aside from that arrest, Pfeffer has had no major contact with law enforcement in Bucks County, according to the sources.

» READ MORE: Miles Pfeffer, suspect in the killing of a Temple officer, made bomb threats to a Bucks County school, police say

Fitzgerald had worked at Temple since October 2021. Sources said he was the son of a prominent police official, Joel Fitzgerald, who spent 17 years with the Philadelphia Police Department before moving on to higher-profile law enforcement positions across the country.

He was married and had four children, according to Temple. Passionate about the Phillies, he had a red “P” tattooed on his right biceps. He was also known for wanting to serve the city he called home.

He volunteered with community groups including Black Men Running to help encourage people to take a more positive life path.

» READ MORE: Temple Officer Christopher Fitzgerald ‘cared about the community more than himself’

Officer Rossman Shaffer, secretary of Temple University Police Association, said Temple needs to provide its police with more resources. Fitzgerald “did not have a partner to patrol one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city,” Shaffer said.

Temple said it has taken steps to address safety, including adding police officers.

Safety concerns have been mounting in Temple’s neighborhood since November 2021, when Temple student Samuel Collington was fatally shot less than two blocks from a campus building during a botched carjacking incident. Armed robberies and home invasions have taken place in neighborhoods where students live, prompting some parents to hire private security to patrol those areas.

» READ MORE: Temple University releases the results of its violence reduction report

“We are heartbroken,” Temple president Jason Wingard said Saturday night.

In an interview Sunday morning, Ken Kaiser, the school’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, said the university has prepared grief counselors and employee assistance resources in anticipation of high need when classes resume on Monday. “We’re very aware and sensitive to what this will do to the psyche of the campus,” he said.

A memorial of pictures, candles and flowers has taken shape near where Fitzgerald was killed, near 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue.

And the Temple University Police Association launched a GoFundMe page to help support Fitzgerald’s family.

Gov. Josh Shapiro Sunday afternoon ordered all U.S. and commonwealth flags on public buildings and grounds be flown at half-staff in Fitzgerald’s honor until sunset on the date of interment.

» READ MORE: Donations pour in to GoFundMe for slain officer Christopher Fitzgerald, including $10,000 from billionaire Bill Ackman

A viewing for Fitzgerald will be hled Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at John F. Givnish Funeral Home in Northeast Philadelphia. A second viewing, scheduled for Friday from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., will be held at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City.

The funeral service will take place at the basilica following the second viewing. Fitzgerald will then be interred at Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley.