Just over two years after Fanta Bility was killed by police officers in a suburb of Philadelphia, the Borough of Sharon Hill has agreed to pay her family and other victims of the incident $11 million as a settlement.
The 8-year-old girl was fatally shot when officers fired at a moving car as spectators were leaving the stadium following an Academy Park High School football game in August 2021. Bility was killed, and three others were wounded.
According to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, two teenagers were involved in a dispute and exchanged gunfire outside the stadium. This led to three nearby officers also firing their weapons at a car they suspected of carrying the culprits responsible for the gunfire. Fanta, who was on the sidewalk among a throng of people leaving the game, died from a single gunshot wound to her back. District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer confirmed that it was police gunfire that caused her death.
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Former officers Brian Devaney, 34, Devon Smith, 25, and Sean Dolan, 43, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of reckless endangerment as part of a deal in which the victim’s family had input. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter against the officers.
In May 2023, the former police officers were sentenced to five years of probation.
Bility’s mother, Tenneh Kromah, says the settlement does not bring back her daughter but will contribute to the family’s efforts to keep her “legacy alive.”
“There is no amount of money that will ever bring Fanta back or erase the horrible tragedy of what occurred on August 27, 2021, from our minds,” Kromah said in a statement to NBC10, adding that the family hopes “to move on and focus specifically on the Fanta Bility Foundation.”
Van der Hartshorn, and Levin, the law firm representing the family, hopes the settlement, which resolved three separate lawsuits against the Borough of Sharon Hill, will give the bereaved family a “measure of justice and accountability to those whose lives were forever changed.”
The $11 million settlement is divided as follows: $10 million goes to eight plaintiffs, which include the family and estate of the 8-year-old victim, two women who were in the car originally targeted by the police, and were represented by the van der Hartshorn and Levin law firm. The remaining $1 million goes to a ninth plaintiff who was struck in the foot by the gunfire.
Sharon Hill also released a statement about the settlement, acknowledging “there are no words or actions that can adequately address the tragic loss of Fanta Bility” and that the incident has “forever changed” the community.
“Although we cannot undo the tragic events of that day, we hope that the resolution of the lawsuit might provide those impacted a small measure of closure,” the statement read.“In moving forward, we will continue to mourn with and extend our deepest sympathies to the Bility family.”
The borough aims to improve policing by “implementing policies to protect against this type of tragedy” and hopes to restore the public’s trust in officials and law enforcement.
