Family of the 8-year-old shot fatally by Sharon Hill police call for the officers’ firing

The family of Fanta Bility, the 8-year-old girl killed by Sharon Hill police in late August, is urging the Delaware County borough to fire the officers responsible for her death. 

And their attorney, Bruce Castor, is echoing that call, saying in a statement that enough facts about the case have been made public “to demonstrate the officers acted unreasonably in using deadly force under the existing circumstances.”

Bility, and at least three others, were shot by three officers who fired toward a crowd of people leaving a football game at Academy Park High School on August 27. The police gunfire also wounded Bility’s 13-year-old sister. The officers took out their guns after receiving reports of a shooting a block away from the high school, and allegedly shooting at a vehicle leaving the area, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Sharon Hill Police Department put the officers, who have not been named, on paid administrative leave after the deadly shooting.

Sean P. Kilkenny, Sharon Hill’s solicitor, said Friday that the borough sympathizes with the Bility family, but that the officers will remain on leave pending the outcomes of an administrative investigation into the incident and a grand jury investigation.

The Sharon Hill Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Delaware County Black Caucus has called on the department to act expediently to bring justice to the Bility family.

“I know it’s gonna take time, but we don’t want it to take beyond the appropriate time limit that most investigations take,” William Felder, a member of the caucus, told WHYY News.

“They lost their baby — their daughter, their child, their sister — that spirit will never get a chance to grow or to see what it will become. It’s just a total loss, and the family grieves now,” Felder said.