Security tightened at Academy Park High School football games 1 year after Fanta Bility shooting
SHARON HILL, Pa. - Academy Park High School's football team began their season Friday afternoon, a year after 8-year-old Fanta Bility was killed by police gunfire while leaving the football field with her family.
Authorities say in late August, Fanta Bility and her family were leaving the Academy Park High School football field among a crowd of fans when a shooting between two young men erupted. Bullets from that shooting came in the direction of three Sharon Hill Police officers who were monitoring the crowd.
The officers returned fire, shooting toward a car they believed was involved in the initial gunfire, striking the car and members of the crowd. Bility was the only one fatally struck by the officer's bullets, according to officials.
"I was at that game," Chauncey Billops from Upper Darby said. "There was a lot of fighting in the stands, those neighborhoods don't get along."
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Officers Devon Smith, Sean Dolan, and Brian Devaney were each charged with a total of twelve criminal counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced in January.
A moment of silence was held for Fanta before Academy Park's season opener against Coatesville High School on Friday afternoon. The deadly shooting prompted all of Academy Park's home games this season to be held at 1 p.m.
A beefed-up police presence was also visible on Friday, including cop cars posted at both ends of Coates Street and a metal detector at the entrance of the field.
Coatesville went on to steamroll Academy Park 35-0, but the for some in attendance the game was secondary to the tragedy that unfolded nearly one year ago.
"It was horrible, horrible," Joy Grenwood of Sharon Hill said. "The baby lost her life, the family lost the baby; when you are losing lives, especially a baby, yea that's bad."
Meanwhile, family members and advocacy groups remain embroiled in a battle for justice for Fanta. Borough leaders in August shared a heavily redacted taxpayer funded report on the incident.
The borough council said the Sharon Hill Police Chief have since received an unredacted version of the controversial report. They teased an upcoming meeting about updates to policies and changes that the borough said will be shared at a later date.
Lawyers for the three officers charged recently argued to have the manslaughter charges dropped. The defense argued that the officer's profession influenced the harsh penalties, which D.A. Stollsteimer called "absolutely wrong."
A Delaware County judge is expected to make a decision this month on whether to withdraw the harshest penalties the officers face or keep them in place.