Did a Bucks County teen intentionally kill a Temple police officer? Jurors at his trial will be asked to determine the answer.

When Miles Pfeffer fatally shot Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald in 2023, Philadelphia prosecutors said Monday, he left a trail of evidence showing that he wanted the officer to die.

Fitzgerald had been chasing after Pfeffer near Temple’s campus for mere moments when Pfeffer pulled a handgun and shot him six times, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Crump told jurors Monday during opening statements at Pfeffer’s trial on murder charges.

The bullets struck Fitzgerald in the head, shoulder, and neck, Crump said, and several were fired from point-blank range as Pfeffer stood over Fitzgerald and continued pulling the trigger.

Pfeffer’s attorneys, however, told jurors that the shooting of Fitzgerald was, effectively, a mistake.

Pfeffer was an 18-year-old kid when he encountered Fitzgerald, they said, and he was scared that a police officer was chasing after him.

His decision to pull a gun proved deadly, Assistant Defender Susan Ricci said — but his choice was not a premeditated or intentional one.

“Miles was terrified,” Ricci said. “He reacted out of fear.”

The dueling interpretations of Pfeffer’s actions that day took center stage Monday as Pfeffer’s trial got underway. And jurors over the next few days will be tasked with determining which version to believe — with the answer likely to determine whether Pfeffer, now 20, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Pfeffer has been charged with first-degree murder, murder of a law enforcement officer, and weapons violations. Prosecutors contend that he deliberately killed Fitzgerald after a foot chase, then committed a carjacking before fleeing to his mother’s house in Bucks County.

If Pfeffer convicted of the most serious offenses, the mandatory penalty is life in prison. (District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office declined to seek the death penalty, a decision Fitzgerald’s relatives have criticized.)

Pfeffer’s attorneys, meanwhile, are seeking to convince the panel that he lacked the specific intent to kill required for a first-degree murder conviction. Jurors could still vote to convict him of a lesser degree of murder, and that would spare him from an automatic life sentence — and create the possibility for him to be paroled at some point in the future.

There are few factual disputes about what actually happened the night of the crime, Ricci told jurors Monday.

The crux of the case will almost certainly come down to the question of intent.

The incident began shortly after 7 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2023. Fitzgerald was patrolling alone near campus, and spotted Pfeffer and two other people in masks near 18th Street and Montgomery Avenue. Police were on alert at the time for a rash of recent carjackings, and Fitzgerald, seeing the trio of people acting suspiciously, announced over police radio that he was going to make a pedestrian stop.

But Pfeffer ran away and Fitzgerald chased him. Then, after a brief physical struggle, prosecutors said, Pfeffer pulled out a handgun, shot Fitzgerald, then stood over the officer and fired at him several more times.

Prosecutors did not play video of the crime Monday, but said they plan to do so in the coming days. Ricci, Pfeffer’s attorney, acknowledged the video will be difficult to watch, telling jurors: “It will be devastating. It will be shocking. It will be traumatic.”

After being shot, Fitzgerald was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was declared dead. He was a father of four who had worked several jobs in law enforcement before becoming a Temple police officer in 2021.

Pfeffer was arrested at his mother’s house in Buckingham Township the next day and has been jailed ever since.

Prosecutors Monday also called their first witness in the trial, a crime scene officer who testified about actions he took to preserve evidence in the moments after Fitzgerald was shot.

Prosecutors told Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson that they also intend to call the two men who were with Pfeffer the night of the incident — his younger brother and one of his friends — as well as the person Pfeffer carjacked, among other witnesses.

The trial is expected to last several days.