Ex-Pa. officers plead guilty in fatal shooting of 8-year-old
The three former Sharon Hill police officers who opened fire after a high school football game in August 2021, killing 8-year-old Fanta Bility and wounding three others, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Thursday during a crowded hearing in Media.
Brian Devaney, 42, Sean Dolan, 26, and Devon Smith, 35, remain free on bail while awaiting sentencing by Delaware County Judge Margaret J. Amoroso in January.
Their pleas, negotiated with the District Attorney’s Office, meant more serious charges of manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter would be dismissed.
Attorneys for the officers, who were fired days after their arrests, had sought for months to have the manslaughter charges dismissed. Amoroso declined to dismiss the manslaughter charges in September, setting the stage for a trial.
Thursday’s plea, Deputy District Attorney Douglas Rhoads said during the hearing, came in consultation with Fanta’s family, who saw it as an appropriate conclusion to the criminal case. The Bility family had publicly called for justice and accountability for the child’s death.
After the hearing, his voice thick with emotion, Fanta’s uncle, Abu Bility, said, “The hurt caused by Sharon Hill Borough and its police department has overcome our family with tremendous grief.”
He said that the family is still struggling with Fanta’s loss, and that for them, the plea deal was an opportunity to find closure amid their grief.
Attorneys for the former officers did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Fanta was struck by one of 25 bullets fired by Devaney, Dolan, and Smith as dozens of people were leaving an exhibition game between Academy Park High School and Pennsbury. She had attended the game with her family, in part to watch her older sister Mawatta’s first performance as a cheerleader.
She died in the arms of her mother, Tenneh Kromah, amid the chaos of stampeding bystanders trying to find safety.
Devaney, Dolan and Smith, who were stationed near the stadium’s exit, monitoring the crowd, heard gunfire about a block away. They mistakenly believed that the source of the shots was a Chevrolet Impala that had stopped abruptly in front of them outside the stadium, and that the occupants of the car had been firing at them, according to a grand jury presentment filed in the case.
The officers’ bullets riddled the vehicle, shattering its windows and ricocheting off its frame. One of those stray shots flew beyond the car and into the crowd, where it struck Fanta. Three other people, including Fanta’s sister Mamasu, 12, were injured.
Investigators later learned that the officers were mistaken: The shots were fired by two teenagers nearby, Angelo “AJ” Ford and Hasein Strand, who police say started a gunfight after an argument at the stadium escalated.
Ford and Strand were initially charged with murder in Fanta’s death, but those charges were dropped after the grand jury recommended charges against the officers. The teens were charged with lesser crimes arising from the shooting, which injured a 13-year-old bystander.