‘We have to keep moving’: Slain Temple officer’s running club vows to continue his fight against gun violence

The runners from Swagga House Run Club and Black Men Run Philadelphia are usually a blur of perpetual motion when they’re together.

“Miles up! Guns down!” has been the mantra of this group of mostly Black and Latino men since the two running clubs came together in 2021 to call attention to the gun violence epidemic that plagues many of the neighborhoods where they grew up — neighborhoods that many of them still call home.

Since their first group run two years ago, these friends have logged more than 100 miles together on what they called “Hood 2 Hood” runs.

» READ MORE: Slain Temple officer Christopher Fitzgerald’s death an ‘extraordinary loss,’ officials say

But on Sunday, the men stopped running — their usually limitless energy gone, replaced by a numbness that they struggled to put into words.

Before them, on the 1700 block of Montgomery Avenue in North Philadelphia, stood a fresh sidewalk memorial for one of their own.

In the early evening hours of Feb. 18, Christopher David Fitzgerald, a 31-year-old husband, father, and Temple University police officer, was shot and killed while on duty.

Miles Pfeffer, an 18-year-old from Bucks County, is charged in the killing, the first fatal shooting of a Temple police officer, according to police.

Police said video captured Pfeffer shooting Fitzgerald just after 7:12 p.m. Saturday — investigators said that Pfeffer stood over the fallen officer and shot him again before rifling through his pockets and trying to steal Fitzgerald’s gun.

It was the kind of senseless violence that “Fitz,” as friends called him, hoped to prevent both as a police officer and also as one of the founders of the “Hood 2 Hood” runs.

» READ MORE: Temple president Jason Wingard on shooting of police officer: ‘We need help’ | Jenice Armstrong

The memory of a man so full of life and love for his city was almost too much to bear for friends reeling from his death.

“I love my city so much,” Edward Gonzalez told me as we stood by the growing memorial full of flowers and mementos. “But I hate it right now.”

It was a visceral and completely valid reaction to the kind of hollowing devastation that rocks our devotion to a city that can so often, and so deeply, disappoint us.

The day after Fitzgerald was killed, members of the clubs chose to stick to their regular 5-mile run as a way to cope with their shock and grief. Afterward, they planned to gather at the memorial.

Much has been made of how the racial dynamics in the killing — Pfeffer is white and Fitzgerald was Black — have imploded stereotypes about shootings.

But the reality is that gun violence has never been confined within city lines; Kensington’s drug problem is a daily reminder of that. It has always been and continues to be a far-reaching American problem.

As my colleague Will Bunch pointed out in his latest newsletter, the most recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that gun ownership was spreading most rapidly among young white men who live in the suburbs and exurbs. As of February, most mass shooters in the United States since 1982 were white men.

That reality was not lost on Leroy Miles, one of Fitzgerald’s running mates, who added a pair of running sneakers to the memorial. Miles recalled conversations with Fitz during runs about wanting to do more about the violence impacting their city — something the group is more determined than ever to do since Saturday. The groups raise awareness about gun violence through their regular runs; they also provide mentorship opportunities to young people and host anti-violence events and programs.

“Everybody got so close-minded that this was just something that just comes out of Philly,” Miles said. “This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks this is just our problem.”

The clubs are sadly familiar with loss. The Swagga House Run Club was founded in 2020 to honor a friend and fellow runner Dante Austin, who died by suicide. This week, the runners vowed to continue their community outreach in memory of Austin and Fitzgerald.

“Some days may get dark, but we have to keep moving,” Miles said. “It’s going to take more than what we do, but we can’t stop.”

Miles’ words stayed with me long after we parted ways. He and many of the other runners plan to attend funeral services for Fitzgerald at the John F. Givnish Funeral Home in the Far Northeast on Thursday and the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Logan Square on Friday. Following the services, he will be buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley.

On my way to the area where Fitzgerald lost his life, I noted several of the city’s ubiquitous memorials to young men shot and killed in Philadelphia.

On the way back, it was impossible not to notice a mural to Philadelphia Police Sgt. Robert Wilson III, who was shot and killed while on duty in 2015.

And then on Tuesday, a few blocks away from where Fitzgerald was killed, two teenagers were shot while walking home from school.

It was a somber reminder that for far too many of us, there is no outrunning despair.