Temple University police officer shot and killed during chase reported to be son of former Allentown chief
A Temple University police officer was fatally shot near campus Saturday night while chasing a robbery suspect, officials said.
Christopher Fitzgerald was involved in a high-profile case in 2014 when he was charged — and later found not guilty — of pointing a loaded gun at two undercover Lehigh County detectives in 2014.
Temple said in a statement that the alleged robbery took place at a nearby convenience store and the officer was pronounced dead at the university hospital.
Philadelphia police investigate the fatal shooting of a Temple University police officer along the 1700 block of West Montgomery Avenue in North Philadelphia on Saturday. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
The statement said the university was heartbroken. It said it would not identify the officer at this time out of respect for family and friends, but the Philadelphia Inquirer, citing sources, identified the officer as Christopher David Fitzgerald, 31, the son of former Allentown Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald, who spent 17 years with the Philadelphia Police Department before his stint at Allentown from 2013-15 and other higher-profile law enforcement positions across the country.
Christopher Fitzgerald was involved in a high-profile case in 2014 when he was charged — and later found not guilty — of pointing a loaded gun at two undercover Lehigh County detectives in 2014.
Raw video: A Temple University police officer has died following a shooting Saturday evening in North Philadelphia.
County detectives claimed Fitzgerald caused them to fear for their lives when he suddenly pointed a loaded gun at them during a road-rage incident on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township. Jurors deliberated for more than five hours in 2015 before finding Fitzgerald, a Lehigh County Jail corrections officer at the time of his arrest, not guilty of simple assault and reckless endangerment.
Fitzgerald later filed a civil rights lawsuit against Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin, his top deputy and two county detectives alleging that the DA’s office had violated his rights when undercover county detectives arrested him in a parking lot near Lehigh Valley Mall in 2014.
A federal judge rejected the claims in 2019, saying that Fitzgerald did not suffer any constitutional violations as a matter of law.
The Temple University Police Association said details of the shooting were still incomplete, but he was killed in the line of duty.
WPVI-TV reported that the officer was shot in the head, and there were no immediate arrests.
Ken Kaiser, the university’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, was quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer as saying it was the first shooting death of a campus officer during his more than 30 years at Temple. “It just shakes everybody to the core,” he said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro tweeted that he and first lady Lori were “devastated for the family of the Temple University police officer who was killed in the line of duty tonight, bravely serving his community.”
They sent prayers to his family, Temple police and the university community, he added, saying, “May his memory be a blessing.”
Joseph Regan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge, also expressed condolences.
“There are no words to describe the news of another one of our officers being shot,” Regan said in a statement. “This officer is a hero whose legacy and unselfish act will live in our hearts and memories forever.”
It was the first fatal shooting of an on-duty police officer in Philadelphia since 2020, according to the Inquirer.
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