Child Sexual Abuse Cases

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele says former Morton, Pennsylvania police officer Francis Connell Collier, 38, was fatally shot around 3:48 a.m. Wednesday in Bala Cynwyd after he opened fire on Lower Merion Township officers who recognized his vehicle and moved to confront him. Collier had resigned from the Morton Police Department in December after being placed on unpaid leave when prosecutors opened an investigation, and a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in neighboring Delaware County charged him with child rape, endangering the welfare of children and related sex offenses involving two girls who were under 13 more than two decades ago. According to a probable cause affidavit, Collier failed a polygraph in early December and afterward told a detective he "never intentionally touched the girls inappropriately," while the victims later became alarmed to see social‑media photos of him with children and to learn he was serving on a child‑abuse task force. Morton police issued a public statement calling the allegations "profoundly disturbing" and "wholly inconsistent" with departmental values, emphasizing that he was no longer employed there. The case underscores ongoing concerns about how alleged child predators can remain in uniform and, in this instance, end in lethal violence when officers attempt to take a charged former colleague into custody.