An 18-year-old man is under arrest for fatally shooting a Temple University police officer on Saturday, the U.S. Marshalls Service in Pennsylvania announced Sunday.
Miles Pfeffer, 18, was arrested Sunday morning for murder in the shooting death, said the USMS Eastern Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force in Bucks County.
He was also charged with murder of a law enforcement officer, robbery, carjacking and weapons crimes in the death of officer Christopher Fitzgerald, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office said Sunday.
Fitzgerald, 31, had been trying to stop a carjacking on Saturday night when he was shot in the head, prosecutors said.
“Pfeffer is also alleged to have attempted to rob Officer Fitzgerald of his gun and to have gone through his pockets, while the officer was laying on the ground and fatally wounded,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a Sunday statement.
“Pfeffer is further alleged to have committed a carjacking a short time after, close to the location of the officer’s murder.”
His father was Joel Fitzgerald, a 17-year Philadelphia Police Department veteran and the former chief of police in Allentown, Pa.
“We are heartbroken tonight,” Temple President Jason Wingard said as he choked back tears, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“It just shakes everybody to the core,” said Temple official Ken Kaiser.