January 24, 2024
Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University
In February 2023, Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald was shot and killed while responding to a carjacking in North Philadelphia. His accused killer, Bucks County teenager Miles Pfeffer, is heading to trial on murder charges. Pictured above is a memorial for Fitzgerald shortly after his death.
Nearly a year after the murder of Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald, his family continues to seek justice, suggesting that his alleged killer should be sentenced to death.
Bucks County man Miles Pfeffer, 19, is heading to trial for the February 2023 murder of Fitzgerald. Pfeffer appeared in court yesterday and waived his right to a preliminary hearing on charges that include the murder of a law enforcement officer and robbery. Fitzgerald's family was present in the courtroom.
For the family, it had taken too long to begin the trial process. "A preliminary hearing happened today. We're talking January 2024, and my son was killed on Feb. 18th of last year," Joel Fitzgerald, Christopher's father and a former Allentown police chief, said outside of the courthouse. "It's ridiculous."
Pfeffer was arrested on the morning of Feb. 19, 2023, charged with the murder of Fitzgerald, who was 31 at the time of his death. The evening before, Fitzgerald responded to a potential carjacking near Temple's North Philly campus at 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue. He spotted three young individuals and pursued one of them, Pfeffer, culminating in an altercation that resulted in Pfeffer allegedly shooting Fitzgerald with a handgun.
As Fitzgerald lay on the ground, Pfeffer shot him multiple times in the head and face, according to police. Pfeffer also allegedly attempted and failed to take Fitzgerald's gun from his holster and later carjacked a vehicle before his arrest.
"He's disgusting. Nothing more, nothing less," Marissa Fitzgerald, Christopher's widow, said of Pfeffer outside the courthouse. Marissa was wearing her husband's Temple Police jacket. "No empathy. Just an evil human being, just an evil individual that has no regard for life."
Police honored Christopher Fitzgerald with a posthumous promotion to sergeant, and the city renamed the 1700 block of West Montgomery Avenue to Christopher Fitzgerald Way. But Fitzgerald's family is still seeking justice, suing Pfeffer and his family for wrongful death and negligence and explicitly calling for a death penalty verdict.
"It meets every threshold of the death penalty, and I will tell you that we're waiting with bated breath to hear from the District Attorney to see what they decide to do," said Joel Fitzgerald.
While the office of District Attorney Larry Krasner did not comment on sentence recommendations for the case, Krasner has opposed the death penalty in the past, aligning with Governor Josh Shapiro's call to ban the death penalty in Pennsylvania. Pfeffer's next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 13, days before the first anniversary of Fitzgerald's murder.
