BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (WPVI) — A former police officer wanted on child rape charges was shot and killed early Wednesday during a confrontation with Lower Merion Township police that authorities described as a “suicide by cop.”
One of the women whose allegations launched the investigation said she is struggling with mixed emotions as the case ends without a trial.
“There was, you know, sadness, anger. Sadness mainly for my childhood self,” Tori Payne said in an interview with Action News on Wednesday night.
READ MORE | Former part-time cop wanted on child rape charges killed in shootout with police near St. Joe’s
A former police officer wanted on child rape charges was killed during a shootout with police near the campus of Saint Joseph’s University.
Police said officers approached 38-year-old Francis Collier around 3:45 a.m. on Old Lancaster Road as he was getting into his car. Collier, who was wanted on charges filed Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, allegedly fired at officers, who returned fire and killed him.
A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured the sound of multiple gunshots.
Tori Payne, Collier’s niece, said she came forward in December 2025 along with another female family member to report years of sexual abuse they said began when they were around 5 and 6 years old.
At the time, Collier was a teenager babysitting them in Drexel Hill, according to charging documents.
Payne said, as an adult, she learned Collier had become a part-time Morton police officer and had seen photos on social media of him with children while serving in his role as a police officer. She also learned he had served on the Delaware County Child Abuse and Exploitation Task Force.
“Once I saw him with children, it lit a fire in me that just told me that it was my due diligence to protect any future children,” she said.
County officials said Collier served on the task force from August 2022 to April 2023 and was removed for “inactivity.” After the allegations surfaced in December, the Morton Police Department placed him on unpaid leave, and he resigned later that month.
Payne said she had been preparing for an emotional legal process and is now grappling with the fact that Collier will never face the charges in court.
“Sometimes I feel relief because it’s over and he’s gone, and maybe there’s something there that I wasn’t meant to deal with,” she said. “I commend the officers for what they needed to do, and just to be clear, I appreciate them for putting their lives on the line for what they did. But it is unfortunate that he wasn’t able to have to speak his part of it, and that I had to do all of that just for him to kind of take that route.”
She said she wants people to believe her story and to understand the importance of listening to victims. She wanted to speak out in the hopes of inspiring others and showing that it’s never too late to speak up.
“This truly happened, and I think today proves the guilt that I never even got the opportunity to prove in court,” Payne said. “And I want people to know and victims to know that they should be heard and that people should be open to listening to them, whether it’s someone that you think could never do it. It’s generally people that are closest to you.”
In a statement, the Morton Police Department said it is “profoundly disturbed” by the sexual abuse allegations but noted that no allegations of criminal conduct were made against Collier during his time with the department.
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