{"id":124264,"date":"2026-02-26T17:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124264\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:09:21","slug":"former-cop-francis-collier-wanted-on-child-rape-charges-killed-in-shootout-near-st-josephs-university-in-bala-cynwyd-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124264\/","title":{"rendered":"Former cop Francis Collier wanted on child rape charges killed in shootout near St. Joseph&#8217;s University in Bala Cynwyd, PA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">BALA CYNWYD, Pa. &#8212; A former police officer wanted on child rape charges was killed during a shootout with police near the campus of Saint Joseph&#8217;s University, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Investigators said the former part-time officer opened fire when police approached him while serving a warrant in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb of Philadelphia, on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The shooting happened on the unit block of Old Lancaster Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The man was identified as 38-year-old Francis Collier, who had most recently served as a part-time officer with the Morton Borough Police Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Officials said he had been on leave while under investigation and resigned from the department in December.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA hsDdd DbOXS oklLN GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Francis Collier\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR WAUrb hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/18649689_022526-wpvi-former-cop-shootout-12pm-video-vid.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">According to the district attorney&#8217;s office, officers observed Collier getting into his car around 3:48 a.m. near Old Lancaster and Edge Hill roads, and confronted him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Investigators said Collier fired at officers, who returned fire, fatally wounding him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Police remained at the scene throughout the morning, searching for shell casings and towing a Jeep Grand Cherokee that Collier was in at the time of the confrontation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Morton Borough police said Collier was placed on leave immediately after the investigation into him began.<\/p>\n<p>Police in Montgomery County are investigating an officer-involved shooting that took place in Bala Cynwyd early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Sources said the investigation started in December, when an adult female family member reported to Upper Darby police that Collier had raped her as a child between 15 and 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The case was later turned over to the Pennsylvania Attorney General&#8217;s Office, which charged Collier with rape on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Sources also said that while serving in law enforcement, Collier had been assigned to the Delaware County Child Abuse and Exploitation Task Force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The Montgomery County Detective Bureau is handling the investigation into the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALA CYNWYD, Pa. &#8212; A former police officer wanted on child rape charges was killed during a shootout&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[58272,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-124264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-58272","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124264","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=124264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}