Overview

• Opening statements began June 23 with prosecutors outlining plans to show video and bodycam footage they say captures Pfeffer firing at Officer Christopher Fitzgerald.
• Prosecutors told jurors Pfeffer shot Fitzgerald six times at close range after the officer spotted him near 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue and pursued him on foot.
• Defense attorneys argued that Pfeffer, then 18, reacted out of fear when chased by the officer and did not form the specific intent required for first-degree murder.
• Pfeffer, now 20, faces charges including first-degree murder, murder of a law enforcement officer, and weapons violations carrying a mandatory life sentence if convicted.
• The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to seek the death penalty in the case, a decision criticized by Fitzgerald’s family.