Three Police Officers Charged in Fatal Shooting of Child Outside Football Game

Three Pennsylvania police officers have been charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl outside a high school football game in August during which they fired a barrage of bullets after two teenagers began shooting, the authorities said.

Officers Devon Smith, Sean Dolan and Brian Devaney of the Police Department in Sharon Hill, a Philadelphia suburb, were each charged with a total of 12 counts, including both voluntary and involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment, Jack Stollsteimer, the district attorney in Delaware County, said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

The charges brought against the officers by Mr. Stollsteimer’s office followed the recommendations of a grand jury that was empaneled on Nov. 18 to consider charges against the officers.

Mr. Stollsteimer had filed murder charges in November against the two teenagers for the initial shooting outside the stadium, but those charges were withdrawn after the grand jury investigation, his office said on Tuesday.

In announcing the charges against the officers, the prosecutor’s office released a statement from Bruce L. Castor Jr., a lawyer representing the Bility family. “They made the right call,” he said. The pursuit of convictions against the officers, Mr. Castor added in an interview, will be “tough” but “winnable.”

In a joint statement, the three lawyers representing the officers defended their clients as heroic police officers who reacted to a life-threatening situation that was caused by “armed and violent criminals who turned a high school football game into a crime scene.”

The lawyers, Raymond Driscoll, Steven Patton and Charles Gibbs, said that the officers “ran to the sound of gunshots and risked their own lives to protect that community.” The lawyers added that Mr. Smith, 34, Mr. Dolan, 25, and Mr. Devaney, 41, “are innocent and remain heartbroken because of this senseless violence.”

Joseph Fitzgerald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Delaware County, called it a “sad day for our officers.” In a statement, Mr. Fitzgerald said the officers “face criminal charges for trying to do their jobs and keeping the community safe.”

The charges on Tuesday followed months of investigations and hand-wringing over whether any criminal charges would be filed against the officers.

Though there has been an increase in recent years in the frequency of police officers’ being charged with murder and manslaughter for on-duty shootings, the overall number of officers who are charged is extremely low, according to Philip. M. Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University who tracks criminal prosecution of police officers.

According to a database starting in 2005 that Mr. Stinson maintains, Tuesday’s charges bring the number of police officers who have been charged with murder or manslaughter as a result of an on-duty shooting up to 155.

That 155 figure is “low,” he said, considering that beginning in 2015, there have been more than 5,000 fatal shootings by police officers, according to a Washington Post database.

Last year, a record number of 21 on-duty police officers were charged with either murder or manslaughter, according to Mr. Stinson’s database. He contrasted that figure with the more than 1,100 people who were killed in police encounters, according to the Mapping Police Violence database.

“It seems that the very small percentage of cases that result in officers’ being charged warrants closer examination,” Mr. Stinson said in an interview. “It’s really shocking when you start to look at the numbers. It’s only when you aggregate the data, that is when you realize it is a systematic problem.”

As most on-duty officers involved in fatal shootings are not charged, Mr. Stinson said, “presumably, every case where an officer is not charged, I can only assume that there was a finding by investigators or prosecutors that the officers were justified in the use of deadly force.

“Because,” he continued, “in the absence of that, we would expect criminal charges.”

The charges on Tuesday stem from a shooting that occurred on Aug. 21, 2021. The police were monitoring the crowd when gunfire erupted outside the football field at Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill during the season opener against Pennsbury High School, prosecutors said.

Though a few minutes remained on the clock, the game was essentially over — a 42-0 win for the home team. People were already heading for the exits when bursts of gunfire rang out.

On the field, players hit the ground, seeking safety.

Two of those shots were fired “in the direction of” the officers, prosecutors said. The officers responded by firing “in the direction of” the stadium, prosecutors said.

The officers also fired toward a car they mistakenly believed had been the source of the initial gunshots, prosecutors said. The officers fired 25 shots.

When the shooting stopped, Fanta was dead, and at least three people were injured, prosecutors said. On Sept. 2, prosecutors said there was a high probability that Fanta and the other victims had been struck by bullets fired by the officers, not by the teenagers.

On Nov. 10, prosecutors filed criminal charges against the two teenagers — including the murder charges that were later dropped — but not against the police officers. That stirred outrage in the community and angered members of Fanta’s family, who worried that the police would ultimately evade accountability.

One of the teenagers, Hasein Strand, 18, of Collingdale, has pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and aggravated assault; the other, Angelo Ford, 16, known as AJ, “remains charged with serious crimes for his attempt to kill” Mr. Strand, the authorities said.