Justice For Fanta: Sharon Hill Cops Charged With 12 Counts Of Manslaughter In Shooting Death Of 8-Year-Old Girl

Source: Youtube screenshot / iOne Digital
Three Sharon Hill police officers have been charged with the death of 8-year-old girl Fanta Bility, who was shot and killed outside a suburban Philadelphia high school football game in Sharon Hill. A grand jury determined that officers Devon Smith, Sean Dolan, and Brian Devaney fired 25 shots, injuring three and killing Bility. Each was charged with 12 counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
According to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, the incident, which took place on Aug 27, 2021, at the Academy Park-Pennsbury football game, began when witnesses told police two teenagers had a verbal altercation that turned into a gunfight. As officers were helping bystanders exit the football stadium when they heard gunfire. The officers allegedly fired their weapons in the direction of the stadium, shooting four people, killing Fanta Bility.
“These officers made a split-second decision to return fire. We trust them to get that decision right and they got it horribly wrong,” said Stollsteimer. “From the moment the call came in on August 27, my team of investigators and prosecutors has worked tirelessly to achieve justice for Fanta and the other victims of that tragic night. Today’s charges are a big step forward in that process.”
Initially, Stollsteimer’s office arrested Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, on multiple charges, including first-degree murder, after authorities said Ford and another teen, 18-year-old Hasein Strand were partially responsible for Fanta’s death. But after the grand jury decision, the charges in relation to Bility’s killing were dismissed against Ford and Strand. According to officials, Ford still faces charges in the attempted murder of Strand.
“I fully realize that the tragic death of Fanta and the trauma inflicted on her family, the other victims, and community members involved, has been emotionally draining to all, including the investigators and prosecutors assigned, said Stollsteimer. “No one touched by this incident will ever be the same.”
Bility family attorney Bruce Castor said the family was happy with the grand jury’s decision.
“They are very, very pleased,” said Castor. “The police, clearly by everybody’s account, thought they had the right to shoot the car. They were wrong and they were dramatically wrong.”
Bail was set a $500,000 for each defendant and a preliminary hearing has been set for Jan. 27, 2022.
SEE ALSO:
Pennsylvania Cops Shoot And Kill 8-Year-Old Black Girl, Black Teen Gets Blamed And Charged With 1st-Degree Murder
DA Seeks Grand Jury After ‘Near Certainty’ Cops Killed 8-Year-Old Fanta Bility In Philly Suburb
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UPDATED: 6:45 p.m. ET, Jan. 5, 2022 — The centuries-old American tradition of police shooting and killing Black males suffered an untraditional jolt in April when former cop Derek Chauvin was found guilty and convicted on all counts for murdering George Floyd by kneeling on the unarmed, handcuffed man’s neck for more than nine minutes. But it has been a quick resumption to police normalcy with multiple killings of Black people by law enforcement since the day of Chauvin’s verdict. MORE: #SayHerName: Black Women And Girls Killed By Police Thelonious “RaRa” McKnight died on Dec. 29, 2021, after an officer with the Paterson Police Department in New Jersey shot the 25-year-old under questionable circumstances. “A cop car drove by and then came back and stopped,” McKnight’s friend and eyewitness Duke Snider told the Bergen Record the day after the shooting. “One of the cops came up and went straight for Thelonius. Then two other cops joined him. They marched Thelonius toward the backyard and made him take his hands out of his pockets.” The Bergen Record reported: “Snider said that he followed and that McKnight was facing police with his hands up when they shot him.” McKnight’s name joins a long list of too many other Black men and boys killed by the police, including people who have become household names for all the wrong reasons like Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, E.J. Bradford and Michael Brown. But there are plenty of others whose police killings never went “viral,” including people like Michael Dean, a 28-year-old father who police shot in the head on Dec. 3, 2019, and Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old HBCU student who police shot to death after a questionable traffic stop on Dec. 14, 2019. One of the most distressing parts of this seemingly nonstop string of police killings of Black people is the fact that more times than not, the officer involved in the shooting can hide behind the claim that they feared for their lives — even if the victim was shot in the back, as has become the case for so many deadly episodes involving law enforcement. In a handful of those cases — such as Antwon Rose, a 13-year-old boy killed in Pittsburgh, and Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old killed in Sacramento, both of whom were unarmed — the officers either avoided being criminally charged altogether or were acquitted despite damning evidence that the cops’ lives were not threatened and there was no cause for them to resort to lethal force or any violence for that matter. Crump, who has been retained in so many of these cases, described the above scenarios in his book, “Open Season,” as the “genocide” of Black people. As NewsOne continues covering these shootings that so often go ignored by mainstream media, the below running list (in no certain order) of Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police under suspicious circumstances can serve as a tragic reminder of the dangers Black and brown citizens face upon being born into a world of hate that has branded them as suspects since birth. Scroll down to learn more about the Black men and boys who have lost their lives to police violence.
Justice For Fanta: Sharon Hill Cops Charged With 12 Counts Of Manslaughter In Shooting Death Of 8-Year-Old Girl was originally published on newsone.com