- Police in
Pennsylvania responded to a gunfight between two teens on August 27, prosecutors said. - An officer shot a bullet that eventually killed 8-year-old Fanta Bility, the district attorney said.
Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have charged two teenagers with murder over the
Fanta Bility was killed by a bullet fired by a police officer intervening in an August 27 gunfight outside a high-school football game in Sharon Hill, the office of the Delaware County district attorney said on Wednesday.
Three police officers had responded to the scene, and it was unclear which officer fired the bullet that killed Bility, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The officers opened fire on a vehicle that they mistakenly thought was involved in the gunfight, and Bility was shot once in the back, The Inquirer reported. Bility's cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the torso, the DA's office said, citing the Delaware County medical examiner.
The teenagers who started the gunfight - Angelo "A.J." Ford, 16, and Hasein Strand, 18 - were charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, The Inquirer reported, citing the DA's office.
In a statement, DA Jack Stollsteimer said, "Following a verbal altercation at the football game, defendants Ford and Strand exchanged multiple gun shots with each other." He continued, "This gunfight wounded one person caught in the crossfire and precipitated the responsive discharge of weapons by police officers."
"This responsive gunfire by the officers wounded three bystanders and tragically killed Fanta Bility," Stollsteimer said.
In a statement cited by The Inquirer, First Assistant District Attorney Tanner Rouse said the legal basis for charging the teens was "very simple." He added, "They were attempting to kill one another that night, and as a direct result a little girl is dead."
But Bruce Castor, the Bility family's attorney, told ABC 6 that the police officers should bear the blame.
"The DA is gonna have a tough time in a transferred intent case charging these fellas with first-degree murder," he said.
"It does not, however, remove the focus from the fact that it was police officers acting recklessly and inappropriately that fired the fatal round that killed Fanta Bility," he added.
The police gunfire also wounded three other people, the DA's office said. They included Bility's 13-year-old sister, WHYY reported.
The Bility family sued the Sharon Hill Police Department for damages in mid-October, CNN reported.
The department put several officers on administrative leave after the shooting, WHYY reported, but the Bility family said Delaware County should fire them.
Ford was arrested on Wednesday. He's set to be sent to jail and held without bond, the DA's office said. Authorities were still looking for Strand as of Wednesday, the office said.