Plymouth Township Officer Brad Fox Was Killed In The Line Of Duty Nine Years Ago Monday

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, PA — It has been nine years since the Plymouth Township Police Department experienced its first-ever line-of-duty death when Officer Brad Fox, a five-year veteran, was gunned down while pursuing a suspect along the Schuylkill River Trail.

Monday marks the anniversary of Fox’s killing, a death that reverberated around the local law enforcement community, and ultimately spurred the passage of state legislation instituting mandatory minimum sentencing for those convicted of making straw firearm purchases.

On the day of his death, Fox and his four-legged canine partner, Nick, had been dispatched to a call involving a motorist who had drove around a traffic accident scene that officers had been investigating in the township.

Fox and Nick eventually found themselves on foot patrol along the Schuylkill River Trail near the intersection of Conshohocken and Ernest Station Roads. The hit-and-run suspect, later identified as felon Andrew C. Thomas, 44, had been hiding in wait, and subsequently ambushed Fox, fatally shooting him in the head. Nick, the canine, was also shot, but he survived his wounds.

Thomas then immediately turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

Fox, who was killed the day before his 35th birthday, was a U.S. Marine combat veteran who had served two tours of duty in Iraq. He left behind a wife, Lynsay, a 5-month-old daughter, and another child who had not yet been born. Hours before his death, Fox reportedly told fellow police officers that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

Fox and his family resided in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County.

“We shall never forget the sacrifice made that day by our beloved Officer Brad Fox,” the Plymouth Township Police Department stated in a Monday Facebook post honoring the anniversary of Fox’s killing. “He lives on in our hearts and deeds, now and forever.”

In 2017, five years after his death, Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a straw purchase bill restoring a minimum five-year prison sentence for those convicted of making repeated straw purchases of firearms. It was signed into law by then-Gov. Tom Corbett in October of that year.

A straw purchase is when someone who is legally able to purchase a gun does so for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing firearms.

According to media reports, Michael J. Henry was sentenced to between 20 to 66 years in state prison in the summer of 2013 for his role as the straw purchaser of nine guns that he illegally sold to Thomas between April 2012 and July 2012, one of which was the pistol used to kill Fox.

Henry, an admitted drug addict, had said he never intended the guns to be used to hurt anyone, and that he merely needed money to purchase drugs. Thomas, who had a criminal record, reportedly told Henry during the gun buys that he would never go back to prison, and would be willing to shoot a police officer if it meant keeping him from being arrested, according to a past report in the Bucks County Courier Times.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said Thomas had paid Henry $500 each for the guns purchased.

Thomas was later named as the number one suspect in the 1999 disappearance of his fiance, Maria Procopio, according to news reports.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151, was one of the cosponsors of the straw purchase mandatory minimum legislation. Stephens, whose Montgomery County district is not too far from Plymouth Township, said he hopes the law will help to prevent other tragic deaths like Fox’s.

“That’s the goal,” he told Patch in an interview Monday. “To ensure that our police officers make it home to their families each night.”

Stephens said Fox’s widow’s grandmother was a constituent of his, and he recalls getting to learn more about Fox through family interaction. He said it was terribly sad that Fox’s life was cut short here at home after serving two military tours overseas.

“Should never happen,” he said.

Stephens said he had attended Fox’s funeral nine years ago, calling the situation “heartbreaking.”

“I remember it well,” he said. “Remember just feeling such grief for his family and loved ones and our community.”

In addition to the straw purchase legislation, another thing to come out of Fox’s death was the renaming of a state road in the fallen officer’s memory.

In September 2014, two years after Fox’s death, a stretch of Route 263 (York Road) in Warminster Township, Bucks County was renamed in Fox’s honor. Fox had grown up in Warminster and was a graduate of William Tennent High School.

Months after Fox’s death, his canine partner, Nick, was officially retired and given over to Fox’s widow and children to live at home as the family pet.