A police officer in Pennsylvania died in the line of duty over the weekend after he was shot multiple times.
The fallen officer is being hailed a hero as his alleged shooter faces a slew of charges, including murder.
Chris Fitzgerald, 31, had been an officer on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia for less than two years before he was gunned down on Saturday, Feb. 18, by 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer, authorities say.
“Not all heroes wear capes and Chris definitely was a hero to this community,” Fitzgerald’s cousin Juan Marrero told CBS News.
The shooting happened around 7 p.m. after Fitzgerald attempted to stop three people near the boundary of the university campus for reasons that remain unclear at this time. Pfeffer was among the three, according to police reports.
By the time Fitzgerald neared the group, one individual had walked away, and the other two began running. Those two were Pfeffer and his younger brother, according to investigators. When the younger brother ducked into an alleyway, Fitzgerald kept chasing Pfeffer.
At some point during this encounter Fitzgerald and the teen are thought to have engaged in a brief struggle, and Pfeffer, who is white, fired at Fitzgerald, which was caught on surveillance video, WTXF reports. The officer reportedly fell to the ground and Pfeffer stood over him and “fired several more shots into the face and head area.”
After the shooting, Pfeffer reportedly sifted through Fitzgerald’s pockets and tried to take his gun, an action police say was caught on body camera. Affidavits say after the shooting Pfeffer then carjacked another person. The 18-year-old was heard on video saying, “Give me the keys or I’ll kill you,” during the carjacking. Pfeffer reportedly then fled the scene before calling his mother, who picked him up in the city and drove him back to their 20-acre Boxley Farm property in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
