A former Pennsylvania police officer charged with sexually assaulting two young girls more than two decades ago was killed early Wednesday during a gunfire exchange with police who recognized his vehicle and confronted him, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.<\/p>\n
Francis Connell Collier, 38, who resigned in December from the Morton Police Department in suburban Philadelphia after being placed on leave because of the investigation, was fatally shot at 3:48 a.m. in Bala Cynwyd, near his home.<\/p>\n
kAmp 4C:>:?2= 4@>A=2:?E 7:=65 %F6D52J \ud83d\ude15 s6=2H2C6 r@F?EJ 244FD65 r@==:6C @7 49:=5 C2A6[ 6?52?86C:?8 E96 H6=72C6 @7 49:=5C6? 2?5 C6=2E65 D6I @776?D6D] %96 G:4E:>D H6C6 F?56C E96 286 @7 `b 2E E96 E:>6]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAmr@==:6C 72:=65 2 A@=J8C2A9 \ud83d\ude15 62C=J s646>36C 2?5 E@=5 2 56E64E:G6 27E6CH2C5 \u201cE92E 96 \u2018?6G6C :?E6?E:@?2==J E@F4965 E96 8:C=D :?2AAC@AC:2E6=J[\u2019\u201d A@=:46 HC@E6 \ud83d\ude15 E96 AC@323=6 42FD6 277:52G:E]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAm{@H6C |6C:@? %@H?D9:A @77:46CD @? A2EC@= 6H r@==:6C H2D 724:?8 4C:>:?2= 492C86D 2?5 D2H 9:> C6EFC?:?8 E@ 9:D 42C[ $E66=6 D2:5 \ud83d\ude15 2 C6=62D6]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAm\u201c(96? E96J 4@?7C@?E65 9:>[ r@==:6C 7:C65 2E E96 @77:46CD[ H9@ C6EFC?65 7:C6[ 72E2==J H@F?5:?8 r@==:6C[\u201d $E66=6 D2:5]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAm|@CE@? A@=:46 D2:5 r@==:6C H2D AFE @? F?A2:5 25>:?:DEC2E:G6 =62G6 H96? AC@D64FE@CD :?7@C>65 E96 56A2CE>6?E @7 E96 :?G6DE:82E:@? \ud83d\ude15 s646>36C] w6 C6D:8?65 @? s64] `h[ E96 56A2CE>6?E D2:5 \ud83d\ude15 E96 DE2E6>6?E A@DE65 @?=:?6]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAm%96 277:52G:E D2JD E96 EH@ G:4E:>D 925 D66? D@4:2= >65:2 A9@E@D @7 r@==:6C H:E9 49:=5C6? 2?5 H6C6 3@E9 4@?46C?65 E@ =62C? 96 H2D 2 >6>36C @7 2 49:=5 23FD6 E2D< 7@C46]k^Am<\/p>\n
kAm\u201c%96 |@CE@? !@=:46 s6A2CE>6?E \ud83d\ude00 566A=J EC@F3=65 3J E96 D6C:@FD 2==682E:@?D 282:?DE 2 7@C>6C @77:46C[\u201d E96 56A2CE>6?EVD DE2E6>6?E C625] \u201c%96 4@?5F4E 56D4C:365 \ud83d\ude15 E96 492C86D \ud83d\ude00 AC@7@F?5=J 5:DEFC3:?8 2?5 H9@==J :?4@?D:DE6?E H:E9 E96 DE2?52C5D 2?5 G2=F6D 6IA64E65 @7 E9@D6 H9@ D6CG6 @FC 4@>>F?:EJ]\u201dk^Am<\/p>\n
kAmr@==:6C 5:5 ?@E 92G6 2 5676?D6 =2HJ6C @? 7:=6[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 4@FCE @77:4:2=D]k^Am<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Pennsylvania police officer charged with sexually assaulting two young girls more than two decades ago was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,38,1856,28,30,29,58123,337,6803,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-123843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-law-enforcement","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","13":"tag-pennsylvania-news","14":"tag-pennsylvania-police-child-rape-charges-killed-gunfire","15":"tag-sexual-assault","16":"tag-shootings","17":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123843","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=123843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}