SHARON HILL — On Friday, the borough council released a redacted independent investigation evaluating the Sharon Hill Police Department policies and procedures on the use of force in light of the death of 8-year-old Fanta Bility.
Sixteen pages in total were blacked out as were portions of 12 other pages in the 54-page report. The 17 recommendations that the report presented to Sharon Hill Borough Council as a result of its findings and the assessment of the borough police department’s training and policies were also redacted.
In September, Sharon Hill Borough Council unanimously hired Kelley Hodge and her firm, Fox-Rothschild LLP, to conduct an independent investigation surrounding the policies and procedures surrounding the Aug. 21 shooting in which 8-year-old Fanta Bility was shot and killed as she and her family left an Academy Park High School football game. Bility’s sister and two other citizens were also shot and injured.
Hodge, a former Philadelphia District Attorney who has been nominated to be a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and her team completed the report in June.
The Bility family and at least one community organization criticized the release of the redacted report, calling on all of it to be made public.
Bruce L. Castor Jr., the attorney representing the family, released the following statement after the report was released.
“The undated and redacted report made public today by Sharon Hill Borough is an insult to the memory of Fanta and completely unacceptable in any society that values the truth and the Rule of Law,” it read. “The heavily edited report raises more questions in the minds of the family and the public than it answers.
“Fanta’s legal counsel and family members will have more to say on the report after taking several days to study it,” the family statement continued. “That Sharon Hill Borough officials chose to hide from the public those portions detrimental to itself and the conduct of its officials in the training and supervision of its police department, speaks loudly to Sharon Hill’s knowledge of its own guilt in connection with Fanta’s death.
“The government of Sharon Hill exists to protect and serve the public, but its officials think it exists to protect serve them. The redactions after having had the report for weeks (or months) is a shameful and outrageous demonstration that Sharon Hill Borough’s officials are not interested in providing the truth to the public as a beginning point to heal the community. Sharon Hill’s only interest is in delay.”
Castor asked what is beneath the blacked-out portions of the report.
“What is contained behind those black bars in the report?” the statement read. “What else could there be apart from a professional assessment of the ineptitude of the training, policies, procedures and supervision given to the Sharon Hill Police Department in the use of deadly force?”
The statement concluded that more will be learned.
“The world will eventually learn how Sharon Hill Borough officials failed to make certain its police trained under realistic scenarios and understood fully when deadly force is permitted under the law and when it is not,” the family statement concluded. “That, and so much more, is what Sharon Hill Borough officials are hiding now from Fanta’s family and from the community at large. It is time for the community to have its voice heard. It is time to demand the truth about the police killing Fanta.”
Others also criticized the report released to the public Friday.
“The Bility family and the public had to wait a month and a half for this report, but the actions of the borough demonstrates nothing but faulty behavior,” said Dyamond Gibbs, president of social activist group UDTJ (Understanding, Devotion, Take action, Justice).
“There is no way to deny that Sharon Hill Borough is at fault and there is a reason that this information is no longer included,” she continued. “Rules have been broken and policies and procedures have been violated. There should not be a cover-up for this. Little to no answers came out of this report because of Sharon Hill’s lack of accountability and responsibility to provide transparency to the public, and more importantly the Bility family.
“Taxpayers of Sharon Hill paid for this report, and therefore the public should have access to the original. We will be taking action to demand responsibility, accountability, and access to the original report. This is unacceptable!”
Borough officials said the goal of the report is to “provide measurable information that can guide future planning, training, and resource allocation with the ultimate goal to ensure that the events of August 27, 2021, do not happen again.”
Council also identified that it wanted to ensure that going forward, the Sharon Hill Police Department adopted and implemented the best practices available regarding the use of force and any other relevant policies and procedures, including community policing.
These investigators were asked to identify deficiencies that existed in police policy, training or the execution, which resulted in injury or death to citizens based on an officer’s use of force.
Entitled “Investigation of the Sharon Hill Police Department Polices and Procedures Following the Academy Park High School Shooting on August 27, 2021,” the 54-page document outlined the investigation, which looked at the use-of-force policies in effect at the time of the shooting and use of force trainings implemented at the time of the shooting. It also looked at officer training of responsiveness to critical incidents, such as an active shooter.
The analysis compared Sharon Hill Police Department’s use of force policies with the policies of the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Springfield, Norristown and Lower Merion police departments. It evaluated a 422-page document titled “Sharon Hill Police Department Policies and Procedures,” produced by Sharon Hill Police Chief Richard Herron.
The investigators also gathered national and state law enforcement resource agency reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission.
They also interviewed Sharon Hill borough police officers. The report said not all borough police officers were able to participate in this investigation, due to to their participation in the grand jury investigation on the matter.
One of the findings was that the Sharon Hill Police Department does not reflect the diversity of the community it serves. The Hodge report noted that 71.1% of Sharon Hill’s 5,712 residents are Black or African American; 21.2% are white; 2.1% are Asian; and a little over 5% are another race or of mixed races.
The borough police department is comprised of all male officers who are predominantly white, according to the report.
On Aug. 27, there were 19 active officers. As of June 6, according to the Hodge report, there are 13 active officers.
Regarding the use of force, the Hodge Report referred to the Sharon Hill Police Department Policy Manual, which states, “A Police Officer will never employ unnecessary force or violence and will use such force in the discharge of their duty as is reasonable in all circumstances. The use of force should be used only with the greatest restraint and only after discussion, negotiation and persuasion have been found to be inappropriate or ineffective. While the use of force is occasionally unavoidable, every Police Offices (sic) will refrain from the unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering and will never engage in cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment of any person.”
The report also looked at 60 of the directives in the policy manual.
One that the investigators highlighted stated that “Officer should not discharge any firearm at or from a moving vehicle, except as the ultimate measure of self-defense or defense of another, when the suspect is using deadly force by means other than the vehicle.”
The directive allowing for deadly force says it can be used by police officers “if it is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape and … (t)he person to be arrested has committed or attempted a forcible felony, or is attempting to escape and possesses a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict serious bodily injury unless arrested without delay.”
Among the things to be considered by a borough police officer when using deadly force, according to the report, is the accuracy of his information and the danger to innocent bystanders.
“Officers are prohibited from discharging firearms when it appears likely that an innocent person may be injured,” the report quoted a Sharon Hill police policy directive.
Regarding training, Sharon Hill police officers must successfully complete the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officer Basic Training Program, which includes two modules — “Firearms” and “Laws and Criminal Procedures” — on the use of deadly force. In these, cadets learn legal issues with use of force, how to de-escalate situations and participate in a stress shooting course.
In addition, certified police officers must qualify with their duty weapon each year.
The incident from which this report stemmed began at the end of a football game last year.
On Aug. 21, as the crowd was exiting an Academy Park High School football game, 18-year-old Hasein Strand of the 500 block of Felton Street in Collingdale and Angelo “AJ” Ford, 16, of the first block of High Street in Sharon Hill got into a verbal dispute and Ford allegedly flashed a gun at Strand.
Ford then allegedly opened fire in the area of the 900 block of Coates Street, shooting at Strand five times and Strand allegedly returned fire twice. Officials have said Ford and Strand are members of rival gangs.
Both Strand and Ford were initially charged with first-degree murder under the legal theory of “transferred intent.” Those charges have been withdrawn.
Strand pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three to six years in prison. Ford escaped from a juvenile placement facility in February and continues to be sought by law enforcement.
According to the Hodge report and preliminary findings of the Delaware County District Attorney, the gunfire in the area of 900 block of Coates Street also included a shot in the direction of three Sharon Hill police officers monitoring the crowd exiting the football stadium and also struck and injured a civilian.
In response, the officers discharged 25 rounds of their service weapons and one of those shots, according to the District Attorney, was the one that killed Fanta.
The Hodge report also noted that Sharon Hill police officers Vincent Procopio and John Scanlan, immediately attended to Fanta Bility after she was shot and transported her in a patrol vehicle to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m.
This past week, defense attorneys for the three former Sharon Hill police officers — Devon Smith, 34, Sean Patrick Dolan, 25 and Brian James Devaney, 41 — sought to have the manslaughter charges dismissed for their clients.
Smith, Dolan ad Devaney are each charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, as well as 10 counts of each of reckless endangerment.
All three were firing the same type of weapon and the fragment recovered from the fatal shot was unable to be positively matched to any specific officer, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.
Common Pleas Court Judge Margaret Amoroso has scheduled another hearing in September on the dismissal request, but may issue a ruling earlier.
In the report, it states that borough officials see this as a start.
“For Borough Council,” the report stated, “this Investigation is not the end, but the beginning of its ongoing effort to ensure the (Sharon Hill Police Department) is employing the best practices to protect the community.”
