{"id":14998,"date":"2025-06-26T01:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T01:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14998\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T01:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T01:29:08","slug":"philadelphia-jury-convicts-man-in-killing-of-temple-university-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14998\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia jury convicts man in killing of Temple University officer"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A Philadelphia jury on Wednesday convicted a suburban man for killing a Temple University police officer who had chased him down as a suspect in a series of carjackings.<\/p>\n

That Miles Pfeffer killed Officer Christopher Fitzgerald had not been in dispute. The murder trial largely centered on whether the February 2023 shooting death was intentional.<\/p>\n

After less than a half-hour of deliberations, jurors found him guilty of murder of a law enforcement officer, robbery and gun crimes, prosecutors said. He was then sentenced to life without parole, plus decades for robbery.<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney Bob Wainwright, who prosecuted the case, called Fitzgerald \u201cthe kind of police officer that we want in our city. And when you murder a police officer, yes, there is kind of significance to the importance of that kind of a case. Because our society depends on the police to function.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MilesMiles Pfeffer<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Pfeffer, who was arrested hours later on his mother\u2019s sprawling 18th century Bucks County farm property in upscale Buckingham, said he was a frightened 18-year-old who panicked that night. Pfeffer is now 20 years old.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors told jurors in opening statements that Fitzgerald gave chase after spotting Pfeffer, his brother and a friend dressed in black and wearing masks in an area where there had been a series of robberies and carjackings. Two of the teenagers hid. Fitzgerald caught up with Pfeffer and ordered him to the ground, leading to a struggle, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Pfeffer then pulled out a gun and shot Fitzgerald six times, sometimes at point-blank range, prosecutors said. A security camera video played in court for jurors showed some of the chase and shooting. Pfeffer\u2019s brother testified against him at trial.<\/p>\n

Wainwright said prosecutors believed they had a strong case, crediting investigators for getting witness statements and collecting Pfeffer\u2019s DNA from a carjacked vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we had six gunshots, all the vital parts of the human body, all at close range and all caught on video in a way that showed just kind of the viciousness of it,\u201d Wainwright told reporters after court was adjourned.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald, 31, was married and a father of four children.<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Fitzgerald in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Temple University Police Association)<\/p>\n

Assistant Defender Susan Ricci said in openings that Pfeffer\u2019s actions had not been premeditated.<\/p>\n

But Assistant District Attorney Lauren Crump said the video of Pfeffer standing over the officer and shooting proved his intent.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Larry Krasner opposes the death penalty and did not pursue it in this case, despite calls for capital punishment from Fitzgerald\u2019s father, a former city officer who now runs the Denver transit police, and the Temple University Police Association, which called Krasner\u2019s decision \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: June 25, 2025 at 7:23 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A Philadelphia jury on Wednesday convicted a suburban man for killing a Temple University police officer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,5295,728,50,1448,2830,15273,1311,11104,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-14998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-top-stories-dtd","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114747078584286787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}