PHILADELPHIA — Three Sharon Hill police officers were charged with manslaughter Tuesday for killing 8-year-old Fanta Bility while firing at a car outside a high school football game in August.
After a grand jury investigation, officers Devon G. Smith, Sean Patrick Dolan, and Brian James Devaney face counts of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless endangerment, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said.
At the same time, the prosecutor’s office is withdrawing murder charges against two teenagers it had accused of contributing to the death by engaging in a gunfight 140 feet away that drew the officers’ fire. Those charges, filed late last year, had outraged some in the community who said it took the focus away from the police officers’ culpability in Fanta’s death.
