NEW YORK — Three former Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, police officers pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment during a court hearing on Thursday in the fatal shooting of Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old girl who was killed last year after officers fired shots into a crowded area.
Former officers Brian Devaney, Devon Smith and Sean Dolan were each charged on Jan. 18 with 12 criminal counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment. They pleaded guilty to the lesser charge as part of a plea agreement requested by the girl's family, according to Philadelphia ABC News station WPVI-TV.Fanta Bility's family attended the hearing and told reporters they hope the officers' guilty pleas will help bring their family some"closure.
Abu Bility said"after much prayer and discussion," the family decided that a plea agreement ensuring that the"police officers take responsibility" was in the"best interest of the family." Fanta was shot on Aug. 27, 2021, in Sharon Hill while exiting a football game at Academy Park High School with her family. Devaney, Smith and Dolan fired their guns toward the crowd after two teens opened fire in a personal dispute close to the high school, according to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.
"This is a terrible tragedy that was caused by armed and violent criminals who turned a high school football game into a crime scene in which an innocent child lost her life and others were seriously injured," Raymond Driscoll, Steven Patton and Charles Gibbs, the lawyers for the three officers, said in a joint statement after the charges were announced."These three officers ran to the sound of gunshots and risked their own lives to protect that community.
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Fanta Bility case: 3 former Sharon Hill officers plead guilty in deadly shooting incidentFormer Sharon Hill officers Brian Devaney, Sean Dolan, and Devon Smith pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment charges Thursday in the shooting that killed 8-year-old Fanta Bility outside of a high school football game last summer.
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Officers plead guilty to reckless endangerment in fatal shooting of 8-year-old Fanta BilityThree former Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, police officers pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment during a court hearing in the fatal shooting of Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old girl who was killed last year after officers fired shots into a crowded area.
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What to know about the Fanta Bility shootingFanta, 8, was killed as she walked out of a crowded football game at Academy Park High School in August 2021.
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Three former Sharon Hill police officers pleaded guilty in Fanta Bility’s fatal shootingBrian Devaney, Sean Dolan, and Devon Smith pleaded guilty to 10 counts each of reckless endangerment Thursday, avoiding the more serious charges of manslaughter that they faced.
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3 ex-officers plead to lesser charges in girl's shootingThree former police officers who were charged with killing an 8-year-old girl after they opened fire in the direction of a crowd leaving a high school football game in suburban Philadelphia pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 counts each of reckless endangerment. The negotiated pleas included a dismissal of manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter charges against the three former Sharon Hill Borough officers — Sean Dolan, 26, Devon Smith, 35, and Brian Devaney, 42 — in the August 2021 death of Fanta Bility. “The agony we feel constantly re-living the loss of our dear Fanta, who was just 8 years old when she was killed by Sharon Hill police officers, is impossible to describe with words,” Bility's uncle Abu Bility read from a family statement after the hearing, describing the trauma her mother and siblings went through witnessing the shooting.
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