SHARON HILL, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Community leaders are calling out Sharon Hill Borough Council over a heavily redacted report on the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old Black girl outside a high school football game last summer.
Fanta Bility was shot and killed outside an Academy Park High School football game on Aug. 27. In September, the Delaware County District Attorney said it was likely Sharon Hill police who fired the bullets that hit her and three other people.
Borough Council hired former Philadelphia District Attorney Kelley B. Hodge to lead an investigation into the policies and procedures of the Sharon Hill Police Department. They released her 55-page report on the shooting, but 40 of those pages, including key findings and a series of 17 recommendations, were either partially or totally blacked out. The only information in the report that isn’t redacted was already known.
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Sheila Carter, president of the Darby Area NAACP, says Tuesday that information such as police training requirements and policies for use of force should be public.
“If you don't want to share with us the findings of this report that probably cost us thousands and thousands of dollars, then tell us what the procedure was before the report was done,” Carter said.
“You spent taxpayer dollars as a resident of Sharon Hill, $400 an hour, for a person to come in here to give us a report with no information.”
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Three officers — Brian Devaney, 42, Sean Dolan, 42, and Devon Smith, 34 — are charged with manslaughter. Investigators say two teens shot at each other a block away. Prosecutors say when the officers by the stadium heard the gunshots, they thought someone in a car was firing at them, and they mistakenly opened fire toward the car and into a crowd of people behind it.
“It’s a sad situation because you had not one, not two, but three police officers that shot over 20 shots into a crowd of people when you didn't even know what your target was. As a former police officer, that's unacceptable," said Carter.
The officers were fired in January. Their lawyers argue criminal charges should be thrown out.
‘It’s so tone deaf that it’s unreal’: Protesters respond at police event
A group of protesters interrupted Sharon Hill Police’s National Night Out event Tuesday night, angry over the redacted report about Bility’s death.
“Say her name, Fanta Bility!” protesters chanted as they marched from the borough office to Academy Park High School, where the event was held. The goal of the event is to better connect the community and police.
“It’s so tone deaf that it’s unreal,” said protester Echo Alford. “Did any of you stop to think about how your community feels? And what you’re doing? Because the community remembers Fanta.”
Borough Councilor Sandra Holcombe said she had a chance to look at the report but wants to read it over with more detail, and has a lot of questions.
“This is my home. It’s like my child being shot. So I care,” said Holcombe.
“It’s in the hands of the jury, and whatever it is in the hands of. As a councilperson, my hands are tied.”
“These cops didn’t shoot the kid,” said Gerard Turner about the police who hosted Tuesday night's event. “But it’s still our job as parents and protesters to let them know we don’t want that to happen again.”
Sharon Hill officials say the report is so heavily redacted because the Bility family sued the borough and litigation is ongoing.
Borough Council on Monday released a statement in response to the criticism, saying, in part, “We understand the frustration the redacted report has raised. Based on the statements made, it appears the family has not been informed by their counsel of the questions the report does answer in addition to the remedies available through the judicial process.”
Police gave no comment in response to the protesters at Tuesday evening’s event.