MEDIA — Behind a backdrop of three former officers of good character who made a fatal mistake and a grieving family suffering the loss of their 8-year-old, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Margaret Amoroso was charged with a decision.
On the one hand, the district attorney’s office was asking for jail time, up to two years for each of the 10 counts of reckless endangerment to which the former officers had pleaded guilty. The judge was noting the gravity of the situation and the impact it has had on the family down to a brother unable to even go to a playground where he and his sister, Fanta Bility, had played.
On the other, three defense attorneys argued that these men — Brian Devaney, Sean P. Dolan and Devon Smith — had already paid a price for their mistake with the loss of their careers and they had taken responsibility by pleading guilty in November, rather than drag the family through a lengthy trial.
In a packed, standing-room-only courtroom, Amoroso acknowledged the enormity of the case.
Looking to the Bility family, she added, “If what I did today could bring your daughter back, it would be a very easy decision. Nothing that I can do can make you whole.”
To Fanta’s siblings, the judge shared she has five brothers and sisters who mean so much to her.
“This is not your fault,” she said, pleading with them to never think that.
As crowds were leaving the stadium at the end of the game, a shooting occurred a block away and then-Sharon Hill police officers Devaney, Dolan and Smith mistakenly fired into the crowds thinking the firing was coming from someone there. Their shots injured four, including Fanta fatally.
Investigations connected the fatal shot to the officers’ service weapons, but not to any one specifically.
On Friday, Amoroso said the law required her to weigh several facts, including that Devaney, Dolan and Smith have no prior convictions, the multiple letters of support in their favor: 16 for Devaney, 14 for Dolan and 20 for Smith and the lack of ill intent in their actions.
“I do not believe they are a danger to the community,” the judge said, then she quoted Fanta’s uncle Siddiq Kamara, in saying, “This isn’t about blue lives or Black lives, this is about Fanta’s life and that her life did, in fact, matter.”
The judge noted the former officers’ accountability by pleading guilty in the case.
“It is my belief,” Amoroso said, “that when good people do hard stuff, we get the best we can get.”
‘How grief is’
During his address to the court, Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Doug Rhoads painted a beautiful, vivid picture of who Fanta was and a grim picture of the family’s experience over the past two years.
“There are good days and bad days,” he said. “That’s how grief is.”
Rhoads said the family has felt anger, fear and helplessness but “most of all, there are days of sadness, of missing young Fanta … Day to day there is a void that cannot be filled for them.”
He spoke of their survivors’ guilt, especially for Fanta’s sister.
“Why did this happen?” Rhoads said they ask themselves. “Why me? Did I have to be cheerleading that night? … Why did this happen to us?”
He then spoke of Fanta.
“She was a lovable, loved, happy-go-lucky girl,” Rhoads said. “She was sweet and kind, (with) kindness to a fault.”
He shared a story the family had told of how Fanta would often raid the family refrigerator to hand out snacks to her neighborhood friends.
Rhoads spoke of the special closeness Fanta had with her younger brother, Abu, and how the two would often play at the nearby playground.
“He no longer wants to go to the playground down the street because it reminds him of his sister,” Rhoads said of the boy.
He read words from the family, “We have experienced pain and suffering that has impacted every part of our lives.”
He spoke of how Tenneh Kromah, Fanta’s mom, held the dying girl in her arms after she had been shot.
“No one expects to go to a high school football game as a family and not all come home,” Rhoads said, noting that the family had fled war-torn Liberia with the hopes of a safe American dream. “The family wants to see Fanta’s memory, Fanta’s light out there in the world. They want Fanta’s life to have meant something.”
He then said Fanta’s father and uncle asked for incarceration while her mother, as consistent with her faith, “has forgiveness in her heart.”
‘Profoundly sorry’
The defense attorneys offered their own snapshots of the officers, all of whom had dozens of people attend the hearing in support.
Devaney, a 42-year-old married father of three and 1998 Interboro graduate with a Penn State undergraduate degree, grew up in a law enforcement family.
He started his career in 2003 as a Delaware County park police officer and a part-time officer in Sharon Hill. In 2013, he became the school resource officer at Academy Park High School.
Dolan, 25, had just graduated from the police academy that summer 2021. He had been a police officer for 10 days when the shooting occurred.
He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps in becoming a police officer after having graduated from Ridley High School and Penn State University.
Smith came from Jamaica and worked to build a life here. In 2015, he joined the Sharon Hill Police Department to be of service.
The former officers themselves addressed the court and Devaney and Smith spoke, often through tears, to the family directly.
Turning to face the Bility family in court, Devaney said he regretted not following his heart and talking to the family after the shooting.
“There really are no words to express how sorry I am for the loss of your baby girl Fanta,” he said dabbing tears with a tissue. “I am profoundly sorry for what happened. Your daughter and your family will remain in our prayers.”
He said he was excited to take job as school resource officer and had even volunteered to work that night — Aug. 27, 2021 — three days before he was to officially return to school because he wanted to see the kids.
“I missed the students,” he said, adding, “I’ve dedicated the last 20 years of my life to serving the people of Sharon Hill.”
Noting that it was a split-second decision with harrowing circumstances, Devaney said, “I have taken full responsibility for my actions that night.”
‘I came up short’
Dolan, who addressed the court but not the family, spoke very softly.
Saying he never intended to cause such harm, he said, “I came up short. For that, I am totally sorry.”
He, too, added, “I take responsibility for my actions that night and the effect it had on people.”
Smith spoke poignantly of a time he had met Fanta long before the shooting.
It was around 2 p.m. one day and he was investigating some complaint and the little girl was playing basketball with her brothers and sisters.
He recalled the little girl coming up to him and hugging him.
“Officer Devon, thank you so much for letting us play,” Smith said she told him.
After that, she told him she felt good when she saw him working.
Tearing up, Smith also faced the family and said, “I personally express my sincere condolences to you.”
As a father of three, he said, “I take full responsibility for my actions … I will constantly pray for your forgiveness and your healing. My goal that night was to keep you safe and I failed.”
Victim’s family
Although Fanta’s uncle, Abu Bility, said he was disappointed by the sentencing, others in the family said differently. A familiar theme was the need to make certain no other family or child has to go through this again and some expressed a need for more police training and supervision.
Mawatta Bility, Fanta’s older sister who was cheerleading that night, spoke after the court proceeding.
“I think that the sentencing was fine,” she said. “I don’t think that the judge did anything that would jeopardize us. I feel like, in their defense, it wasn’t their fault and nobody can really look over the situation.”
She recalled the 8-year-old she knew as sister.
“My little sister, she was very caring, very kind, very outgoing,” Bility said. “She was very sweet, also … Although she’s not here today, she’s forever in our hearts and she’ll forever be by our side.”
She also expressed gratitude.
“I thank everybody for supporting us,” Mawatta Bility said. “I would like to thank the judge. I would also like to say I forgive the officers, on behalf of my family.”
‘Wonderful dignity’
When asked about the sentencing, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer referenced Amoroso’s earlier remarks that no one is ever completely happy with a sentence: that half think it was too lenient and the other half think it too harsh.
“She did what she did best to find the middle and the just sentence,” he said. “They are going to be held under house arrest for 11 months. That is a form of incarceration and they are going to be on probation for five years. The judge, in her wisdom, and she is the one who gets to make this decision, believes that was the just sentence in this case. It is not my duty or my right to question that. The judge made what I think is a just decision.”
He said that after the verdict the family reached out to the defendants and hugged them and offered words of forgiveness.
“I am breathless by the humanity, the courage and just the wonderful dignity of these people,” he said. “They have blessed our country and our county with their presence here.”
