LOWER MERION \u2014 Lower Merion Township police fatally shot a former Morton police officer wanted by state authorities for alleged child rape in Delaware County in what the Delco DA described as \u201csuicide by cop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lower Merion police were on patrol Wednesday shortly before 4 a.m. on Old Lancaster Road in the Bala Cynwyd section of the township when they spotted a vehicle that belonged to 38-year-old Francis C. Collier, who was wanted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General\u2019s Office on charges of rape of a child, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
The officers saw Collier returning to his vehicle, and 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPer protocol for officer-involved shootings in the county, Montgomery County Detectives responded to the scene and are investigating the shooting,\u201d Steele wrote in the news release.<\/p>\n
Charges were filed Tuesday against Collier, with a Bala Cynwyd address, in the court of Magisterial District Judge Gabriella Coleman in Secane. There was no arraignment information.<\/p>\n
The charges were aggravated indecent assault with complaint less than 13 years old, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, endangering the welfare of children by parent\/guardian, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and simple assault charges were filed with the offense date listed as Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 families and had access to the girls at the time, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
The charges were filed by Special Agent Daniel C. Shead of the attorney general\u2019s office. Representatives for the attorney general\u2019s office could not be reached for comment on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Morton Police Chief Kenneth Lawless had this statement Wednesday:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Morton Police Department was contacted in December 2025 by the Delaware County District Attorney\u2019s Office regarding an investigation into then-officer Francis Collier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation was related to criminal allegations of an incident(s) that took place many years ago when Francis Collier may have been a teenager. Collier was immediately placed on unpaid administrative leave and he subsequently resigned from the Morton Police Department on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Feb. 24, Morton police became aware that Francis Collier had been charged criminally by the Pennsylvania State Attorney General\u2019s Office. The charges are related to the incident(s) investigated and already referenced. There had been no allegations of criminal conduct against him during his tenure as a Morton police officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Morton Police 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further specifics about the charges against Collier were not available.<\/p>\n
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said in a statement that, \u201cThese allegations represent profound violations of trust and have doubtlessly caused unfathomable harm.<\/p>\n
Rouse said Collier \u201creportedly engaged in actions that led to what has been described as \u2018suicide by cop.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the defendant\u2019s death brings the criminal case to an end, it does not erase the seriousness of the allegations or the harm that he caused. We recognize the immense courage it takes to speak out, and we remain committed to supporting survivors,\u201d Rouse added, and thanked the AG\u2019s office and the collaboration with the office that \u201chelped ensure all necessary actions were taken.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2014 Lower Merion Township police fatally shot a former Morton police officer wanted by state authorities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[46,212,182,183,185,184,186,200,139,28,210,150],"class_list":["post-123460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-courts","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}