Officer Brad Fox, 34, a Plymouth Township police officer, was shot in the head and killed at approximately 6:00 p.m. on 9/13/12 following a traffic stop. At approximately 5:16 p.m., officers from the Plymouth Township Police Department were investigating a three-car accident at 1215 East Ridge Pike in the Conshohocken section of Plymouth Township. At 5:42 p.m., while conducting traffic control at the accident scene, officers observed a silver, 2006 Infiniti SUV, traveling at a high rate of speed, passing stopped traffic in the opposing lane of traffic. Officer Bradley Fox and backup began to follow the Infiniti SUV from Ridge Pike onto southbound Conshohocken Road. While traveling on Conshohocken Road, the Infiniti struck a white Chrysler 300 Sedan and fled the scene. Upon arrival at the location of the hit and run, officers were informed by another motorist that the striking vehicle drove onto Ernest Station Road. Officer Fox followed the path of the striking vehicle and found it abandoned on Ernest Station Road. Within minutes, Officer Fox and his K-9 partner Nick began a foot pursuit and radioed for backup. Officer Fox and his K9 partner pursued the suspect into an industrial area alongside the Schuylkill River Trail. Responding officers located Officer Fox on the grass between the Schuylkill River trail and the train tracks above the trail. It was apparent he had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and they called for emergency medical backup. Officer Fox was taken to Montgomery Hospital where he died and was only about six hours away from celebrating his 35th birthday. Officer Fox’s K-9 partner Nick, Belgian Malinois, suffered a graze bullet wound and received veterinary care. Both were shot with a 9mm Beretta gun Officers responded from multiple jurisdictions and immediately began to establish a perimeter to secure the area and locate Officer Fox’s killer. With assistance of multiple police agencies and canine search teams, the killer was located. He had sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest and was deceased. Preliminary investigation revealed that the killer, Andrew Charles Thomas, age 44, abandoned the stolen car he was driving, fled from the officer and was hiding on the hill above the train tracks obscured by tall weeds. Crime scene evidence indicated he ambushed Officer Fox by firing at least four shots at the officer and his K-9 partner from an elevated vantage point where Officer Fox could not view him. Fox became a K9 officer in 2012 and recently graduated from the Philadelphia K-9 Unit in March of 2012 and was a seven year veteran of the department. Officer Brad Fox had previously served as a U.S. Marine SSgt. for ten years and completed two tours, 2003 in Iraq and 2005-2006 in Fallujah. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Presidential Unit Citation, Selected Marine Corp Reserve (X3) Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon and The Armed Forces Reserve Medal. Officer Fox is the first Plymouth officer killed in the line of duty. Thousands attended his funeral along with his K9 partner “Nick”. Officer Fox was buried in his uniform and received full military honors. His K-9 partner Nick was retired on 11/12/12 and given to the Fox family. Fox is survived by his wife, Lynsay, 28, who is three months pregnant with a second child and a five month old daughter Kadence. Lynsay gave birth to Brad Fox Jr. on March 25, 2013. On September 7, 2014, Lynsay Fox, the widow of Brad Fox filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery County gun dealer who sold the gun that wound up being used to kill her her husband. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed the suit Monday on behalf of Lynsay Fox, claiming that In Site Firearms and its owner, a former police officer, are responsible for Fox’s death because the gun used to kill Fox was sold to a straw purchaser — someone who buys a gun for a person who can’t purchase one themselves. In this case, the straw purchaser, Michael Henry purchased the gun for Andrew Charles Thomas, who couldn’t buy a gun on his own because of his criminal record. Donations can be sent to: Fox Children’s Fund: C/O of the Children’s Fund, Continental Bank, 661 W. Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19642.
Officer Fox’s K9 Nick died in 2021 from cancer.
Dr. Erica Williams conducted an autopsy of Officer Fox’s body. She found he suffered a single gunshot wound to the head; the manner of his death was homicide. Dr. Erica Williams conducted an autopsy on Thomas’ body. She identified one direct contact wound to his chest and a second close contact wound to his chest. Dr. Erica Williams determined the cause of Thomas’ death was gunshot wounds to the chest; the manner of death was suicide. At the time of the incident, Thomas was on probation in Montgomery County after pleading guilty to a forgery charge on 5/22/2012. The forgery charge resulted from a 2005 incident in Upper Merion when he used $140.00 worth of counterfeit Acme gift certificates. After failing to appear for his original arraignment in 2005, the defendant had been a fugitive for seven years. Lower Merion Police successfully apprehended him on May 21, 2012 and he pleaded guilty the next day. Thomas is reported to have used up to 40 different aliases and social security numbers during his life and was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Maria C. Procopio of South Philadelphia. Procopio, 34, went missing in September of 1999 after leaving her shift at QVC in West Chester, Pa. Her body has never been found.
Michael J. Henry, 30, pleaded guilty on 3/12/13 of supplying the gun that was used in Fox’s slaying. Henry pleaded guilty to all 23 charges involving the illegal sale or transfer of firearms and lying on gun purchase applications that the guns he was buying were for himself and not anyone else. Montgomery County Judge Joseph A. Smyth, accepted the plea. Henry allegedly purchased nine guns between April 2012 and July 2012 for Andrew Charles Thomas, including the Beretta 9 mm pistol that Thomas used to gun down Fox. Thomas would tell Henry what type of gun he wanted, give him cash to pay for the gun and, after the transaction was completed, give Henry $500 in cash for making the purchase. Thomas was barred by law from purchasing the guns himself because he’s a convicted felon. Henry was arrested on charges of the illegal sale or transfer of firearms and lying on gun-purchase applications that the guns he purchased were for himself and not anyone else. Henry, who has been held in the county prison in lieu of $1 million cash bail since his arrest Oct. 10, 2012. Henry told the judge he has been treated at various mental health facilities for anxiety and depression. Police are calling on the public to aid investigators in trying to track down the remaining eight guns, including two rifles that Henry allegedly purchased for Thomas. The firearms that have not been recovered include: Colt .45 ACP, Colt .45 ACP Defender, Colt Mustang .380 ACP 7¾-inch Barrel, Beretta 92FS 9 mm pistol, Beretta 92FS INOX 9 mm pistol, Fabrique Nationale 57 5.7X28 pistol, Remington 750 30-06 rifle and a Stevens 200 Rifle 300 Winchester. On 8/15/13 Montgomery County Judge Joseph A. Smyth sentenced Michael J. Henry to 20 to 66 years behind bars for serving as the straw purchaser of the Beretta 9 mm pistol that was used in the slaying.
On 8/8/17 Vikki Towns-Perez, 36, mother of four who was charged in April for the “straw purchase” street transfer of nine firearms to her nephew was sentenced on 8/8/17 to five to 10 years in a state correctional facility under the Brad Fox Law. She entered a negotiated guilty plea before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan on six third-degree felony counts of selling a firearm to an ineligible transferee, which were consolidated into one count for sentencing, as well as one additional count of the same charge as a felony of the second degree. The Brad Fox Law, enacted in 2013, is named for a Montgomery County police officer who was shot to death by a convicted felon that should not have had access to guns. The statute requires a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted on a second or subsequent offense for making a “straw purchase” of a gun. Towns-Perez, whose first name is also spelled “Vicki” in court records, was sentenced to three and a half to seven years for the first consolidated count, as well as the mandatory five to 10 years for the second count, running concurrently. County Detective David Tyler determined that Towns-Perez purchased nine handguns between February 2012 and May 2013, all of them registered in her name. Several of the guns were the same make and model, including multiple .9mm Kel-Tec hand guns. Towns-Perez, a former certified nursing assistant at the Fair Acres Geriatric Center, told investigators that she purchased all nine guns for her nephew, who she believed had been convicted of several crimes and was not able to purchase the weapons himself. The nephew would describe the model he wanted and give Towns-Perez the money to pay for the gun. Towns-Perez received $150 to $200 in cash for each purchase she made. Towns-Perez previously told ATF Special Agents Sarah Jane Serafino and Gary Malone in a 2014 interview regarding the nine purchases that all of the firearms were in a box inside a filing cabinet at her mother’s residence on McCarey Street. She told the agents that her family had temporarily moved to Ward Street because they could not pay the electric bill. When asked why she purchased several of the same make, model and caliber handguns, according to the affidavit, “she stated that some of the guns would not work correctly, so she would purchase another one of the same type.” Towns-Perez said it would be too costly to send the guns back to the manufacturer for repair and that they had no warranties. She also said she liked the “looks” of the guns, according to the affidavit. She later admitted to meeting her nephew in the 2600 block of Boyle Street in the Highland Gardens neighborhood of Chester to exchange the guns for money, according to the release. Towns-Perez’s nephew, 23-year-old Ka’Ron Ingram, was shot in the back on the night of Aug. 17, 2015. He was found unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a car that had been involved in a two-vehicle collision in the 3000 block of West 13th Street in Chester. His homicide remains unsolved. Of the nine guns Towns-Perez bought, five had been recovered by authorities as of April. All of the recovered guns were used in felony crimes. Towns-Perez was charged with nine counts each of firearm ownership and providing false information; firearm ownership and duty of another person; and tampering with public records, all felonies. She was also charged with false statements, false reports to law enforcement and related charges. The remaining charges were withdrawn under the negotiated guilty plea worked out by Deputy District Attorney George Dawson, Chief of the Anti-Violence Unit, and defense counsel Dawn Getty Sutphin.
