2 teens have murder charge dropped in death of girl, 8, whom authorities say the police killed. Now the officers are going on trial instead.

• Angelo Ford, 16, and Hasein Strand, 18, were charged with murder over the August death of Fanta Bility.
• She was killed by a bullet from one of three police officers who intervened in the teens' gunfight, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in Philadelphia dropped murder charges against two teenagers in the death of an eight-year-old girl whom authorities said the police killed, and charged the three police officers involved with manslaughter instead.

Fanta Bility was killed on August 27 after being hit by a bullet fired by an officer intervening in a gunfight outside a high-school football game in Sharon Hill, the Delaware County District Attorney's Office said in a November 10 statement.

Angelo Ford, 16, and Hasein Strand, 18, who started the gunfight, were subsequently charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, the DA's office said.

In a Tuesday statement, the DA's office said that Ford and Strand were no longer charged with murder.

Instead, the three Sharon Hill Police officers who responded to the gunfight were charged with a total of 12 criminal counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment, the statement said.

On August 27, officers Devon Smith, Sean Dolan, and Brian Devaney opened fire on a car they believed to be related to the gunfight, but their shots missed, hitting Bility and several others, investigators said, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The officers were charged with manslaughter, rather than murder, because there was no evidence of malice in the killing, the DA's office said Tuesday.

A grand jury could not determine which officer fired the bullet that killed Bility, The Inquirer reported.

"We have now concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that it was, in fact, shots from the officers that struck and killed Fanta Bility and injured three others," Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Tuesday.

Stollsteimer's office initially charged Ford and Strand with murder under the legal principle of "transferred intent."

It argued that by starting the gunfight, Ford and Strand prompted the officers to intervene, and therefore bear responsibility for Bility's death, even though an officer had fired the shot that killed her.

Ford still faces serious charges relating to "his attempt to kill defendant Strand," the DA statement said.

Strand pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm, and could serve as long as 64 months in prison based on his plea, the statement said.

The Sharon Hill Borough Council is scheduled to debate a motion to fire Devaney, Smith, and Dolan on January 22, PBS-affiliate WHYY reported.

The Sharon Hill Police Department and Sharon Hill Borough Council did not immediately return a request for comment from Insider.

Lawyers for the three officers told The Inquirer: "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."

"These three officers ran to the sound of gunshots and risked their own lives to protect that community."