LOWER MERION — Montgomery County authorities are investigating an officer-involved shooting in Lower Merion Township during which a former Morton Borough police officer, who was wanted by state authorities for alleged child rape in Delaware County, was fatally shot.

At 3:48 a.m. Feb. 25, Lower Merion police were on patrol on Old Lancaster Road in the Bala Cynwyd section of the township when they spotted a vehicle that belonged to 38-year-old Francis Connell Collier, who was wanted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on charges of rape of a child, according to authorities.

The officers saw Collier, of the unit block of Old Lancaster Road, returning to his vehicle. When they confronted him, Collier fired at the officers, who returned fire and fatally wounded Collier, according to a release issued by District Attorney Kevin R. Steele on Wednesday morning.

“Per protocol for officer-involved shootings in the county, Montgomery County Detectives responded to the scene and are investigating the shooting,” Steele wrote in the release.

According to online court records, the state attorney general’s office filed child sexual assault related charges against Collier on Feb. 24, stemming from alleged incidents involving two underage girls that occurred many years ago at locations in Delaware County, including Drexel Hill and Upper Darby Township.

Those charges, filed in the office of District Court Judge Gabriella Coleman in Secane, included rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault, and simple assault.

The girls were as young as 5 years old at the time of the alleged incidents, which occurred between 2001 and 2004. Collier, a teenager at the time, knew the girls’ families and had access to the girls at the time, according to authorities.

The charges were filed by Special Agent Daniel C. Shead of the attorney general’s office. Representatives for the attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment on Wednesday morning.

But Morton Police Chief Kenneth Lawless issued a statement confirming the department was contacted by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office in December 2025 regarding an investigation of Collier.

“The investigation was related to criminal allegations of an incident(s) that took place many years ago when Francis Collier may have been a teenager,” Lawless said in the statement.

Collier was immediately placed on unpaid administrative leave, and he subsequently resigned from the police department on Dec. 19, 2025, according to Lawless.

Lawless indicated that on Feb. 24, the police department became aware that Collier was charged by the attorney general’s office.

“There had been no allegations of criminal conduct against him during his tenure as a Morton Police Officer,” Lawless wrote in the statement, adding the department is “deeply troubled” by the serious allegations against a former officer.

“The conduct described in the charges is profoundly disturbing and wholly inconsistent with the standards and values expected of those who serve our community,” Lawless stated.

Although this individual is no longer employed by the department, we are fully cooperating with all appropriate law enforcement authorities. Our department remains steadfast in its mission to protect the safety, dignity and rights of all members of our community,” Lawless added in the statement.

Collier reportedly was also once assigned to a child abuse task force.