Joel Fitzgerald tells House Judiciary Committee the horrific details from his son's execution-style murder
Fitzgerald calls on 'megalomaniac' Krasner to seek the death penalty against accused killer Miles Pfeffer
In a 12-page no-holds-barred letter to District Attorney Larry Krasner, Joel Fitzgerald describes the horrific details of the execution-style murder of his son, former Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald.
The elder Fitzgerald follows up by meticulously listing all the aggravating factors in the case that justify seeking the death penalty against his son’s confessed killer, 19 year-old Miles Pfeffer of Bucks County.
Joel Fitzgerald’s a former lieutenant in the Philadelphia Police Department who, after serving as police chief in four different cities, is now chief of the Regional Transportation District [RTD] in Denver. He holds a Ph.D in business administration.
This morning, beginning at 9 a.m., Fitzgerald is scheduled to testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Philadelphia that seeks to examine how Krasner's “pro-criminal policies embolden criminals at the expense of victims and Philadelphia residents.”
The hearing, to be held in Room 2A at the William J. Green Jr. Federal Building at 600 Arch Street, will be led by U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who’s chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
In preparation for his testimony this morning, Joel Fitzgerald sent a copy of his April 30th letter to Krasner that summarizes the case for seeking the death penalty against Miles Pfeffer.
Also scheduled to testify at this morning’s hearing, broadcast live by the House Judiciary Committee, is Pauline Fitzgerald, Joel’s wife, and Christopher’s mother who’s a career homicide detective.
Other invited speakers include Terri O’Connor, the wife of slain Corporal James O’Connor, British author and journalist Douglas Murray, and George Bochetto, the longtime lawyer for Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Police Officer Danny Faulkner, who was slain by celebrity cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
In his letter, Joel Fitzgerald tells Krasner, “We expect for you to evaluate this case on its merits and not your personal beliefs by unnecessarily continuing to delay making the decision as to whether you will empower the jury to pursue death in this case.”
The Fitzgeralds have been fighting a losing battle to get Krasner, a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, to seek it in their son’s murder case.
It’s a political nightmare for Krasner, who pledged on the campaign trail never to seek the death penalty.
The case is about a black and brown urban police officer being executed by a white suburban teen killer. A killer who was allegedly chauffeured in and out of the city the night of the murder by his mother.
A mother who proceeded to hide her son at her farm in Buckingham Township, where, police say, her son was busy destroying evidence.
A mother who’s never been charged by Larry Krasner with any crime while the public defender’s office at taxpayers’ expense works on defending her son.
Since he’s incapable of being honest, Krasner’s only solution to this political nightmare is to delay, delay, delay. And hide behind a Capital Case Review Committee that he just created, a committee that’s supposed to advise him on whether to seek the death penalty in the Christopher Fitzgerald murder case.
Joel and Pauline Fitzgerald have already made the obligatory trek to the D.A.’s office to make their case to the committee in favor of the death penalty. And they’ve made it clear they’re tired of all the delays in their son’s murder case.
Since Pfeffer’s arrest on Feb. 20, 2023, court records show, judges have granted four different requests for continuances sought by Pfeffer’s public defender lawyers.
As a result, Krasner and his close associates at the public defender’s office have succeeded in delaying the preliminary hearing in Christopher Fitzgerald’s murder case by nearly a year.
In his letter to Krasner, Joel Fitzgerald makes it clear that he’s not going to allow Krasner to hide behind any committee. The letter is also Fitzgerald’s way of taking the discussions that have been going on behind closed doors at the D.A.’s office and putting it out on Broad Street.
“The real exercise of power is having the strength of character to not cower behind the façade of allowing a family that suffers extreme grief to perform before your kangaroo court,” Fitzgerald wrote.
“It is painfully obvious that you have made [a] group of experienced litigators who were emotionally moved by our presentation feckless. How can any committee of persons currently working under your direction be expected to countermand the opinions of a megalomaniac who would allow a family to emotionally, yet professionally, present valid reasons for death penalty consideration and continue to avoid providing us with a decision.”
Joel Fitzgerald goes on to say to Krasner:
But if you never give yourself the opportunity to evaluate the opinions of others, or to be above board with a grieving family for something as serious as death penalty consideration, simply because your voice is the only one in the room that you listen to, how can we trust you to handle lower level crime, much less the capital murder of a police officer?
Your inflexibility and lack of candor (even when asked if this committee has ever met before?) makes it very hard to believe that we will ever know, and that certainly does not project that we should have any confidence that your office can be seen as legitimate partners in the city’s attempt to further reduce the prolific violent crime that affects Philadelphia.
During their meeting behind closed doors, Fitzgerald asked the committee if they had ever met before — the answer is no — and he didn’t even get the courtesy of an answer from Larry Krasner.
In his letter, Fitzgerald goes on to rip Krasner for “your illogical stances on crime and punishment, your inconsistent decision making in sentencing, selective and inequitable prosecution efforts, and equal propensity for terminating tenured staff who may not agree with your misguided approach to reversing past injustices . . .”
Then, Joel Fitzgerald describes the last day of his son’s life:
On February 18, 2023, our son, Sgt. Chris Fitzgerald of the Temple University Police Department was on routine patrol in a marked police patrol vehicle and was engaged in a Bluetooth telephone call with his friend Steve, before taking notice of the defendant (and his two cohorts).
Chris devoted his focus to Pfeffer, one of the three males he saw who was wearing a facial mask and attempted to conduct a Terry stop or pedestrian investigation. It should be noted that Chris was wearing a full police bicycle officer uniform, consisting of a two-toned, neon, reflective yellow Temple University Police Department bike uniform shirt, with patches on the sleeve with the word “Police,” clearly identifying him as a law enforcement officer.
Seconds later Chris transmits to his colleagues using his police radio that he is involved in a foot pursuit, before moments later, catching the Pfeffer who, as you will observe in a video entered as evidence, fled on foot.
Chris can also be seen (and overheard) providing clear, articulate, and lawful verbal commands to the male to, “Get the fuck on the ground!” What you are unable to see in the video is Chris using his training and the minimal amount of force necessary in his attempt to bring the subject under his control and effect a lawful arrest.
At this point in the video evidence, you also see and hear the subject actively resisting arrest, and even an unreasonable person would conclude that he made the conscious decision to refuse to surrender peacefully. In fact, you overhear Chris saying to Pfeffer, “Come on bro!”
This phrase reinforces that Chris was using the minimal amount of force, and verbal escalation in an effort to obtain voluntary compliance from the defendant. In devoting additional attention to the audible portion of the video evidence, Pfeffer can be overheard saying, “Why?”
This is the moment immediately preceding his decision to discharge the first of six gunshots that struck our son, a uniformed police officer in the middle of a busy Philadelphia street.
Chris neither beat on the Pfeffer, nor utilized inappropriate force; our collective professional opinion, garnered in over 60 plus years of collective law enforcement experience in four U.S. states, is the subject used this moment as an apparent and calculated ruse, to distract and mentally disarm Chris by feigning compliance and making believe that he lawfully surrendered, before viciously firing striking him in the head/face six (6) times in a densely populated neighborhood in front of stunned witnesses.
Pursuant to the obvious intent of his actions, the result is shocking but not a surprise, the video captures Chris fall to the ground on his back (onto W. Montgomery Avenue) from the forceful impact of Pfeffer’s first shot.
A plea from our son to the subject to cease his active resistance to gain peaceful compliance in the form of “C’mon Bro,” will be the last phrase we will ever hear from our son.
What you would see thereafter, is a law enforcement officer, son, husband, and young father, Chris Fitzgerald, who will not be seen moving without external manipulation again.
The next point in the video reveals Pfeffer’s malicious and callous depravity. He stands over Chris while incapacitated and inexplicably make the conscious decision to shoot him in that state five (5) additional times.
Each of the six (6) total shots are calculated, and fatal, “kill shots” that all strike our son in his neck, face, and head. This subject intentionally ensured Chris’ death, and that each of the six (6) total shots “counted,” a term used by police to describe clusters of gunshots, that in this case were headshots, all striking Chris above his ballistic body armor.
Those actions make it apparent that the Pfeffer is highly intelligent, and his actions were both purposeful, and calculated; he knew that ballistic vests failed to cover areas above an officer’s neck and capitalized upon that knowledge.
These intentional behaviors are compounded when one examines what, in this case should also be considered when evaluating intent. He is an intelligent criminal who proactively engaged in “target practice” shooting on his acreage in Bucks County, PA, and placed himself in the circumstance that he practiced for; a situation where he was able to cajole a police officer to lower their guard after feigning compliance, before intentionally shooting our son multiple times above the coverage of his ballistic vest at close range.
While his son is lying helpless on the ground, dying, Joel Fitzgerald writes, that isn’t the end of Miles Pfeffer’s crime spree:
Pfeffer’s crimes could have stopped there, but as the video evidence supports, they did not. He proves himself to be even more than a highly sophisticated criminal, because he further diversifies his criminality, distinguishing himself from other dangerous shooters. He did not stop at the cold and calculated murder of a uniformed law enforcement officer, and commits two robberies using the same firearm, doubling down on his already distinct achievement.
While Chris lays mortally wounded on his back defenseless with six (6) gunshot wounds to his head, this defendant elevates his level of felonious criminality by brazenly making him the victim of an armed robbery while as he lies defenseless and mortally wounded.
Please consider the level of criminality (or pure evil) required to, after shooting a uniformed police officer who is one of the symbols for anti-violence in our city, lift up his limp arm to facilitate access to his pockets, or to rummage through those pockets in order to rob him of cash before moving on to attempting to steal his continuously holstered firearm.
What message did that send to the community who witnessed these events in an area already under siege from crimes of violence? It certainly reinforces to criminals that if you engage in open season on cops, under Krasner, you will see justice delayed.
In the portion of the video where these acts are memorialized, you will see just that, an adult male criminal who further aggrieved the Philadelphia community by graduating to murderer with “first honors.”
Pfeffer does the unthinkable, while exponentially ups the ante by searching our son’s motionless body for anything that he can steal. He rifles through his pockets and using extreme force when yanking on his firearm.
As someone who comes from privilege, why? Did he need money? His attempt to rob Chris of his weapon was performed with such determination that his holster moved from the right side of his belt to almost the center of his body.
In summary, [Miles] Pfeffer intended to kill a cop that day, and it was our son, Chris Fitzgerald. While Chris lie mortality wounded, this defendant’s criminal mind raced forward as he took the next significant step that aggravates an already heinous list of crimes, after shooting our son six (6) times in the head, he remained on crime scene.
Instead capitalizing upon the opportunity that he created by shooting Chris once, and immediately fleeing the scene, Pfeffer was emboldened.
After the first shot . . . second shot . . . third shot . . . forth shot . . . fifth shot . . . or sixth shot, this murderer ignored every opportunity to stop his criminality there. He stayed to rob a 31-year-old uniformed police officer and father of the contents in his pockets, and moreover, his service weapon.
It was obviously not sufficient enough to illegally possess the firearm that already had our son’s blood on it, the gun used to ultimately kill him; Pfeffer made the specific choice to remain at the scene of the crime after the first shot disabled Chris, and took the path to augment and diversify his criminality that leads us to conclude he risked forfeiting his own life because of those behaviors.
He alone made the conscious decision, as an adult, to apply unprecedented violence that evening. Only Pfeffer, and Pfeffer alone shot and robbed Chris, and an unsuspecting male complainant that night, who he calmly carjacked after ensuring he murdered a cop.
Only he can tell us whether he intended to sell the 2nd gun or to use a murdered officer’s weapon to commit further crimes of accelerated violence, but those answers are not relevant to decide whether or not he crossed the “tipping point” for death penalty consideration; that answer is obvious.
Pfeffer’s wanton disregard for the law, law enforcement, and indifference to the value of human life is apparent. All of his aforementioned behaviors occurred in a densely populated area and in the presence of witnesses who, like our son, were recklessly placed in danger of death or serious bodily injury because of his continuing and escalating course of criminal conduct.
He commits capital murder of a police officer while resisting arrest and violently assaulting him, commits an armed carjacking, multiple counts of aggravated robbery, recklessly endangering another person, possession of instruments of crime, prohibited offensive weapons, violations of the uniform firearms code, theft, terroristic threats, and a plethora of associated charges.
All of his criminal acts occur in a heavily populated neighborhood beset by violent crime, while helpless on-lookers who can never unsee the psychological trauma he inflicted, and physical jeopardy that he placed them in, are frozen in their homes and vehicles.
When all circumstances relating to his crimes are considered the aggravators for capital murder and death penalty consideration are met. Not even the most creative of attorneys can make reasonable people believe that mitigators exists.
Joel Fitzgerald then asks Krasner why he has never explained to the Fitzgerald family his decision to delay the preliminary hearing for Miles Pfeffer by nearly a year:
We questioned why, unlike other homicide cases involving suspects and victims sharing opposite demographic characteristics, did this case take such an extremely long time to get to a preliminary hearing?
We posited that since the shooter is from a privileged demographic, that every Philadelphian should question why this particular defendant’s publicly funded defense team, working on behalf of an adult who admitted to killing a police officer, would receive more courtesy than any person from any part of Philadelphia of another demographic who committed the same crime under similar circumstances.
We have yet to receive those answers presented in a coherent, intelligent manner, or formal manner, and are forced to believe that unless this committee (at minimum) allows a jury of Philadelphians to decide whether the murderer receives death or another commensurate punishment, that you overtly infer to all in our city that this defendant’s life is of more value than that of our black/brown son’s life.
In his letter Joel Fitzgerald explains to Krasner why he and his wife decided to testify at today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing. It’s because the Fitzgerald family doesn’t trust Krasner, or other city leaders, including Mayor Cherelle Parker, who interviewed Joel Fitzgerald for the job of police commissioner. That was before Parker appointed Kevin Bethel, Joel Fitzgerald’s lifelong family friend who inspired him to become a police officer, to that position.
We will ask for their [House Judiciary Committee’s] help because we lack the confidence in you or other city leaders who misdirected efforts to help the black and brown communities backfire, create latch key neighborhoods, and only empower further criminality.
We will discuss how met we with you a year ago and asserted that our son endangered himself by handling this defendant differently, because of your blanket policies of repeatedly prosecuting and retrying police officers, when you are inequitably lenient towards the criminal element of this city
This was evidenced by an appearance you made in 2017 at the Philadelphia Police Academy where you advised recruit officers in summary, to refrain from shooting, or to shoot offenders in the leg. It makes us question whether you weigh the safety of officers' lives and of those we serve more (or less) than those terrorizing our communities?
That statement or advice, if it can be categorized as such, creates unnecessary hesitation like that displayed in this case; making a cop and father like Chris, potentially consider your imbalanced propensity for prosecuting police officers who defend themselves and others, over protecting himself and the community from Pfeffer, and being able to return to his family that evening.
Joel Fitzgerald then broadens the attack on Krasner by talking about the devastating effect his disastrous policies have had on minority communities:
Is it your intent to force the gentrification of Philadelphia neighborhoods, making them temporarily unlivable by undercharging and rereleasing violent criminals while redirecting a large portion of your prosecutorial efforts towards those who valiantly attempt to protect our communities?
Ironically, your statistical history demonstrates at least the latter. There has been an utter lack of effectiveness in prosecutions contributing to the same, in particular any that can be tied to a decrease in firearms related violence, but inexplicably some of our current politicians' plan to engage you to be an active part of targeting and convicting the same repeat offenders who you are likely responsible for releasing back into our communities.
In his letter, Fitzgerald talks about how Krasner’s policies have enabled criminals and demoralized police officers, as well as devastated the Philadelphia business community:
Their plan is a folly and is destined for failure unless you are prepared to acknowledge your mistakes (even in silence) and course correct. Your bail reform policies and charging mistakes have been effective in a major way. They created and facilitated the current a climate of abject lawlessness that enable criminals to perpetrate crimes, force hard-working Philadelphians to shutter businesses that were once Philadelphia institutions.
They were successful in making our city’s financial hub (Downtown) a place where major corporations and their employees avoid, making once proud neighborhoods unlivable, and makes the city we love a target rich area for criminals, even those who venture here from Bucks County empowered enough to shoot, kill, and rob a uniformed police officer steps away from the Temple University campus.
We publicly offer you the congratulations that you deserve for demoralizing good law enforcement officers, chasing away competent prosecutors, negating great investigative policing, all under the false narrative that you perpetuate as the best alternative to what you project as an epidemic of wrongful convictions and police misbehavior.
In his letter, Joel Fitzgerald takes Mayor Parker to task for collaborating with the enemy, and not publicly taking on Krasner:
Is the new environment of emboldened, undeterred, and rampant criminality that you facilitated better or worse for the city? We can and will say what our new mayor has not, you’ve misplaced your priorities by providing third and fourth chances for criminal actors to victimize families while empowering them to reoffend with impunity.
Your overt mission appears to be to tip the scales of justice one way; to free criminals (as a prosecutor) apparently became more important than creating an atmosphere of partnership with law enforcement in defense of all persons who face violent thuggery.
Traditionally justice is depicted as scales in balance held by Justitia, and symbolizes fair and objective consideration, so how can any politician in the city remain silent on the point that the scales in your office, at least for some crimes are inherently imbalanced?
Next, Joel Fitzgerald expresses his disappointment with Mayor Parker, who interviewed him last year for the job of police commissioner:
If the leader of our city is completely honest, she might even say that although your intentions “may” have emanated from a pure place, they have been perverted. The new city leadership is trying their best to work alongside the person who expanded the city’s violent crime problem.
I warned her of the dichotomy of this issue when interviewing for Philadelphian Police Commissioner, even going so far to suggest that police officers detailed to your office be reassigned back to the department instead of having their competent investigative efforts wasted in an office that keeps moving the goal posts for those (prosecutors and cops) who pursue even the most righteous of criminal convictions.
Is that a great idea or what? What would Krasner do without his bodyguards to parade around town with, like a big shot. And when a reporter dares to ask Krasner a question he doesn’t want to answer, the D.A. will no longer be able to order his detectives to forcibly remove a reporter from press conferences, as he’s done to me on three occasions.
Then, Joel Fitzgerald talks about his son’s legacy:
Your intentional delay of this decision (and trial) will not make Philadelphia forget that a police officer who treated people with decency and respect; who ran throughout the most violent areas of the city preaching anti-violence; a man who volunteered himself to provide free meals to people at the Crossroads Community Center in the one of the poorest zip codes in the country, has been delayed justice because of your apparent fear for the life of a admitted murderer.
Chris identified with all demographics in this city and your base; he personified a spirit of service and integrity that the belated decision to pursue justice in this case has lacked. Our family will not forget him, but rest assured, voters will not forget this ridiculous process.
In his letter, Joel Fitzgerald contrasts his son’s spirit of service and integrity with Miles Pfeffer’s privileged upbringing:
Our son’s murderer was raised with privileges and advantages that most Philadelphians living in areas that he chose to target will never enjoy. He did not have to live with the challenges faced by victims that he targets or even remotely identify with Philadelphian struggles.
We worked to provide more for Chris, from living in apartments, to our first home on 17th & Allegheny, to Pine Rd. In the NE. Unlike this sociopath, Chris didn’t have the luxury of calling his mother to come pick him up after a homicide to return him to suburbia. Lord knows that our grandchildren will never have the ability to call their father for anything.
Next, Joel Fitzgerald lists all the aggravating factors in his son’s murdder case that call for seeking the death penalty:
1. He [Pfeffer] admitted to killing Chris.
2. He admitted to destroying evidence.
3. Although this murderer lacks a history of prior convictions; how many convicted criminals in this commonwealth hurt people in the commission of felonious acts but do not take the significant step to kill their victims much less a police officer in full uniform? Those same felons certainly do not execute police officers, rob them, and kill them with 6-headshots. Does anyone who engages in that type of escalating heinous behavior deserve a chance to do it again, ever?
4. By his own admission with defense attorney’s present, he stated to a judge as he waived his preliminary hearing almost one year after his crime that he was not mentally ill, nor was he treated for mental illness.
5. He does not lack the capacity to understand the criminality of his conduct. In fact, he has a grandiose view of himself as a result of his privileged lifestyle. Who can call their mother to pick them up after committing cold blooded murder with smoking gun in hand, and return to the suburbs to admittedly destroy the evidence? Lest we explore the privilege that led to one or both parents also escaping being charged with crimes. Why was his mother not arrested?
[This is a question that Larry Krasner has refused to answer].
6. He was an adult, period. So, there is no room to argue age related excuses for the criminality of persons like this defendant who kill someone who they do not know, for no reason whatsoever, in graphic manner that he chose. This defendant cannot be characterized close to adulthood, he is and was an adult when he killed Chris (a uniformed police officer). The legal definition of adult isn’t qualified by, “. . . u)nless you commit a horrific murder and could face the death penalty, then we will consider whether the defendant was enough of an adult to level death penalty consideration.”
7. Neither threat or duress were present, nor does he act in concert with another when he commits his numerous criminal acts. He alone chose to commit capital murder, and to assassinate our son, a uniformed officer via a series of felonious assaults, including robbery.
Finally, Joel Fitzgerald closes his letter with a pledge to Krasner to keep on fighting:
We are also devout and blended Catholic and Christian family who only seek justice, not vengeance. Our son and her (Marissa’s) husband is gone, and we understand that nothing will ever bring him back.
Despite our inability to ever change that fact, we can ensure that you hold the person responsible for his murder accountable and decrease the likelihood that he will ever pose a similar deadly risk to anyone at anytime in the future.
We made a promise to you a year ago and reinforce the same promise today, in a similarly steadfast manner. We will not rest until you relent from your myopic stance against even pursuing the death penalty, because this case was different.
We inferred then that the nation would serve as our system of checks and balances on this office, and rest assured, we now promise they are watching intently.
Sincerely, Dr. Joel & Mrs. Pauline Fitzgerald
God Bless the Fitzgerald family.
Can't wait until Larry loses his protection detail.