Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

The Trump administration moved to fire the FBI’s former top agent in Philly, who shot a dog in Center City in 2023

Jacqueline Maguire was ordered to resign by Monday evening or be fired.

Jacqueline Maguire, then in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia field office, listens to questions from the media after announcing the arrest of a 17-year-old  in connection with a terrorism probe at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 14, 2023.
Jacqueline Maguire, then in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia field office, listens to questions from the media after announcing the arrest of a 17-year-old in connection with a terrorism probe at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 14, 2023.Read moreYong Kim / Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

The former head of the FBI’s Philadelphia field office — who made headlines two years ago when she fatally shot a pit bull that had attacked her small dog in Center City — was among the agents targeted for termination last week by the newly installed Trump administration.

Jacqueline Maguire was ordered to resign by Monday evening or be fired, according to a memo issued Friday by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. Maguire, who joined the FBI in 2000, spent about two years leading Philadelphia’s field office before she returned to bureau headquarters in 2023, where she most recently served as the FBI’s executive assistant director of the science and technology branch.

Maguire was one of six top officials at the FBI who Bove said would be forced out, in addition to others at field offices across the country. The memo did not provide specifics on why those people had been targeted, except to say that President Donald Trump wanted to end the “weaponization of the federal government,” and address “deficiencies in previous leadership” at the FBI. Justice Department officials have also ordered a broad examination of anyone involved in the investigations into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump, who has long been deeply critical of federal law enforcement, has nominated longtime loyalist Kash Patel to serve as the bureau’s director after effectively forcing Christopher Wray to resign.

“I do not believe that the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” Bove’s memo said.

An FBI spokesperson declined to say Monday morning whether Maguire had stepped down. Maguire declined to comment.

Maguire had a decorated career in the FBI before she became the subject of widespread local news coverage two years ago for fatally shooting a pit bull outside her Center City condo building.

Authorities said Maguire was sitting on a bench on the 1500 block of Spruce Street with her small dog in her lap when an “aggressive” pit bull rushed forward and attacked her dog. Maguire tried to separate the animals, then pulled out her service weapon and shot the pit bull in the hindquarters at close range. The dog died moments later.

Maguire was not charged in the incident, but it quickly ignited a social media uproar and even led to a protest outside the FBI’s Philadelphia offices by animal welfare activists.

Maguire remained the FBI’s special agent in charge in Philadelphia for months after that, and was among the officials who later announced the arrest of a West Philadelphia teenage terrorism suspect after a monthslong investigation.

In late 2023, Maguire was reassigned to serve at the bureau’s training division at its headquarters in Quantico, Va. While there, she penned an essay defending the bureau for diversifying its ranks, saying that ”diversity — in its many incarnations — makes us better able to meet the challenges the [b]ureau faces in today’s world.” Trump has repeatedly sought to end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across government since he was sworn-in last month.

Maguire was most recently assigned to the bureau’s science and technology branch, where she was also overseeing ways the FBI could use artificial intelligence.

Earlier in her career, Maguire served as a lead case agent in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. She also went on to have assignments in places including New York, Washington, D.C., and Alabama.