Fox to be remembered on first anniversary of his death

Friday will mark a sad anniversary. On Sept. 13, 2012, Plymouth Township K-9 Police Officer Bradley Fox was killed by a suspect he was chasing, police say.

To mark his life and service, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman on Friday will dedicate a plaque in memory of Fox as part of the Hero Cop Plaque Program.

The plaque will be located at the site of his death, in a grassy area near the Schuylkill Trail in Conshohocken, where his colleagues already have built a memorial to him.

Philadelphia lawyer James Binns established the Hero Cop Plaque program in 2001 to honor city law enforcement officers who died or were killed in the line of duty. It expanded in 2007 to Montgomery County.

Fox is the 27th law-enforcement officers in the county whose police duty cost them their lives.

In September 2012, Fox was directing traffic around an accident on Ridge Pike when Andrew C. Thomas, a 44-year-old ex-convict, ignored Fox's directions and swerved the SUV he was driving — a vehicle that had been stolen — into the opposing lane to bypass traffic.

Fox got in his cruiser and followed Thomas, who hit a car as he sped away. Near the trail, Thomas left his car and ran to a small rise with tall grass. When Fox and his police dog approached the area,

Thomas, of Bala Cynwyd, fired his illegally obtained handgun four times. One of the bullets grazed the dog and another struck Fox in the head.

Thomas, who had vowed he would never return to prison, then shot and killed himself.

As a posthumous tribute to Fox, Ferman also will ask his family to accept on his behalf, the District Attorney's Medal of Honor, the first such medal she has given.

"He made he ultimate sacrifice," Ferman said of Fox, who was 34 at the time of his death. "He gave his life in an effort to keep the citizens of our community safe."

When Fox died, his wife Linsay was pregnant with the couple's second child. Bradley Michael Jr. was born in March, giving daughter Kadence a little brother.