The Police Fatally Shot a Young Girl. Two Teenagers Are Charged With Murder.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:Olayemi Olurin
@msolurin
Police officers opened fire and killed 8 year old Fanta Bility, and now they’re charging two teenage boys with her death. The madness has to stop

Fanta Bility was killed in August by police officers who fired toward a car they mistakenly believed was the source of gunshots.

The Police Fatally Shot a Young Girl. Two Teenagers Are Charged With Murder.
After two teenage boys exchanged gunfire outside a football game in a Philadelphia suburb, the police opened fire and killed an 8-year-old girl. Now the teenagers are charged with a crime.
nytimes.com
7:54 AM · Nov 16, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/fanta-bility-police-shooting.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/TJf8b

It began, prosecutors say, when two teenage boys, carrying a grudge between them and the guns to settle it, exchanged gunfire outside a high school football stadium just as a game was winding down in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

It ended with the death of an 8-year-old girl named Fanta Bility — killed not by the two boys, but by a barrage of bullets unleashed by three police officers on the scene, who began firing toward a car they mistakenly believed was the source of the gunshots.

Now, more than two months after the fatal police shooting that shook the small town of Sharon Hill, criminal charges have been brought in the case — but not against the three officers. The two teenage boys have been charged with first-degree murder for setting in motion the events that led to the death of the girl, a daughter of West African immigrants who was attending the game to watch her sister, a cheerleader, and her cousin, one of the football players.

The decision by prosecutors to charge the two teenagers, even though they did not fire the shot that killed the girl, while allowing the police officers involved to keep their jobs, has stirred outrage in the community and angered her family who worry that the police will ultimately evade accountability.

*snip*

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. What a clusterfuck. K&R.

[jimfields33]

7. I am glad the two are being charged with murder. That's pretty standard.

The young girls death will be accounted for. Hope they both get life in prison.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. I know, and I'm not.

[Jay25]

22. How is her death being accounted for,

if the cops that killed her face no repercussions? The teenagers were wrong for firing their guns but the police need to be held accountable for opening up fire on a car and killing an innocent child, because they "believed it was the source of gunshots".

I understand the community's ire and her family's fear that the cops will never face accountability.

[LymphocyteLover]

26. WTF? No!

[jimfields33]

31. It's the law. Always has been. Some probably don't like it, but it's standard.

[LymphocyteLover]

40. it's more complicated than that and even if it's the law, it doesn't mean the law is being

applied appropriately here

[Tommymac]

32. You are dead wrong.

[jimfields33]

33. I keep reading this thread and most agree with me.

[Tommymac]

36. Do you watch Fox news or OAN?

Your pov sounds like something one may hear on those networks.

And as far as the majority in this thread having the same pov as you, that is simply not true.

[11 Bravo]

45. You appear not to understand the meaning of the word "most".

[tblue37]

2. Aren't police even taught to make sure of what they are shooting at?

From post #32 on this DU thread-- https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216056229 --in which Devil Child lists the 4 rules of firearm safety:

Snip

Be certain of your target and what's beyond it. Positive target identification is a must. To shoot at something you only think is a legal target is gambling. In the case of human injury, that means gambling with human life. You must be absolutely certain and correct in judgment before deciding to shoot. Otherwise, it's reckless behavior. In addition to identifying the target, a shooter must know that a safe backstop for their bullet is present in every shooting situation.

Snip

[Kaleva]

37. The likelihood of mistakes being made increase when under fire.

The Assistant DA in the other thread wasn't being shot at.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. Bullets pass through cars, unless they hit the engine block or transmission at the right point.

.

Firing a hail of bullets means they travel blocks down the street until they hit something.

I doubt that kid was driving a protection series BMW or the like.
That street was filled with bullets, either deflecting ones or pass-through.

Firing 'toward a car' implies they were shooting at it as it was driving toward them, which also indicates the bullets weren't hitting the side of a house or building.

.

[hunter]

4. It's been my personal experience and observation...

... that once the guns come out everything is FUBAR.

I don't think most cops have the training or temperament to carry firearms and use them judiciously.

[jimfields33]

8. If the two jerks weren't firing their guns then the police wouldn't even be there.

What two creeps did was atrocious. Glad their being accountable.

[Beaverhausen]

10. In what way are those boys responsible for that girl being killed?

Are you out of your mind?

[jimfields33]

14. Read the first three line of the article

It’s clear they should be sent to prison for life.

[lonely bird]

17. They did not kill the girl, period.

Should they go to jail? Absolutely. They created the circumstances for the situation.

Should cops who it appears incorrectly identified a car and fired multiple times get charged? Absolutely. If they cannot do their jobs correctly and that inability results in death particularly of someone completely uninvolved then they need to face consequences.

[MarcA]

18. Agreed. When a group is given special privilege

in a society this is what happens. The idea that those police officers
should not be held criminally accountable for their actions is absurd.
Another example of where innocent civilians are caught in a war between
criminals and law enforcement.

[LymphocyteLover]

27. Yes, exactly

[Beaverhausen]

20. This line: three police officers...who began firing toward a car they mistakenly believed was the...

It began, prosecutors say, when two teenage boys, carrying a grudge between them and the guns to settle it, exchanged gunfire outside a high school football stadium just as a game was winding down in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

It ended with the death of an 8-year-old girl named Fanta Bility — killed not by the two boys, but by a barrage of bullets unleashed by three police officers on the scene, who began firing toward a car they mistakenly believed was the source of the gunshots.

[hunter]

15. Any cop who uses their gun in a reckless manner should be sacked...

... and banned from police work forever, in addition to whatever charges of manslaughter or murder are appropriate.

This has little to do with the other idiots shooting at one another and everything to do with incompetent-to-carry-guns cops.

[MustLoveBeagles]

16. +1

[uponit7771]

5. "they mistakenly believed was the source of the gunshots" WTAF ?!!? This is why even the "good ...

... guys with guns" will fuck up in a crowd of people.

Less guns = more safe

[NowISeetheLight]

6. So they shot at a car....

… that wasn’t involved from a block away? One article claimed they thought they were being shot at from the car, but that was clearly incorrect. It certainly sounds like they were negligent in discharging their weapons. Under the Pennsylvania involuntary manslaughter statute they were clearly doing a lawful activity (police work) in a reckless negligent manner. How can they not be indicted?

§ 2504. Involuntary manslaughter.
(a) General rule.--A person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when as a direct result of the doing of an unlawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, or the doing of a lawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, he causes the death of another person.

[malthaussen]

11. Stretching the definition of "felony murder" to the breaking point.

It's not much different from what would happen if a bunch of cops were beating the shit out of you and you hit one of them back: you're guilty of "assault on a police officer," forsooth, while they get a commendation.

-- Mal

[ripcord]

12. This is pretty much the law everywhere

If you engage in a crime and it leads to death or injury you will be charged even if you didn't cause the death or injury.

[Amishman]

25. yup, this is 'Felony Murder' and not that unusual

I don't even have a problem with the charges mentioned themselves, but I do think the police should be facing charges as well.

[Solomon]

29. You forgot about unless there is an intervening

factor, which does exist in this case. The people in the car were not shooting at the cops. In fact, no one was. So what right did they have shooting that car up?

Sorry to say it but people are just losing it. Arrest the two boys with unlawfully discharging a firearm, unlawful possession, etc. But murder of the little girl? Ridiculous. The rules are always different where black people are involved. I don't care what it is. This society is sick beyond repair.

[Jay25]

35. +++++

[panader0]

13. A few years back, two teenage punks tried to rob a Sonic Drive-in here.

The cops showed up. One guy surrendered, the other was shot dead by the cops. The one who
surrendered was charged with murder.

[TheRealNorth]

19. That sounds fucked up to me.

Might encourage criminals to not surrender, putting everyone at risk.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. The article mentions a case in Phoenix that sounds even worse

A Police Officer Killed Jacob Harris, But His Unarmed Friends Were Charged With His Murder

Shortly after midnight on Jan. 11, 2019, Phoenix police pulled over a car filled with four people suspected of committing an armed robbery earlier that evening. Three seconds after one of them, Jacob Harris, hopped out and started running, officers Dave Norman and Kristopher Bertz opened fire, fatally striking him in the back.

The officers didn’t face any consequences for the shooting. Instead, prosecutors laid the blame on Harris’s three friends in the car. Even though none of them had fired a single shot, 19-year-old Sariah Busani, 20-year-old Jeremiah Triplett, and 14-year-old Johnny Reed were charged with first-degree murder. More than two years later, they remain in jail awaiting trial.

Prosecutors charged them under a legal provision unavailable in most of the country. Most states have the “felony murder” rule, which dictates that a person can be held liable if, while they are committing certain felonies, someone dies as a result of their actions or those of a coconspirator. But in at least 13 states, including Arizona, liability for deaths under the felony murder rule is extended even further: A person can be tried for the fatal actions of a third party, such as a police officer, if the death is deemed a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the crime. In Harris’s shooting, prosecutors argued that the four young adults were fleeing an armed robbery, establishing a chain of events that led to the death. Since 2010, at least 22 people nationwide have been charged with felony murder for deaths directly caused by police, according to a BuzzFeed News review. At least 13 have been convicted.
...
Five years before he opened fire on Harris, Norman fatally shot another man, Craig Uran, whose girlfriend was then arrested for felony murder.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilywilder/police-shooting-felony-murder-third-party

At least in the Philadelphia case, there was active shooting that the police needed to stop. In Phoenix, the risk was that a felon would get away, and the police have blamed those that didn't try to get away for the police killing him.

[secondwind]

23. Oh,what a beautiful child!!!! DAMN

[localroger]

24. While it sometimes results in fucked up situations like this, it's standard

Legal theory is that if you are in the process of committing a crime, and someone is killed either because something went sideways in your plan or the cops showed up like this, you are guilty of their murder because you set up the situation. That the boys in this situation are guilty of the girl's murder is open and shut under usual legal theory, even if it seems weird. The cops should probably be disciplined for not using their weapons according to department policy, e.g. know what you are shooting at before pulling the trigger.

[Solomon]

30. You left a hole i could drive a truck through.

There has to be an intervening factor exception, otherwise the cops can just kill anyone committing a felony and not suffer any consequences. In this case, the cops had no right to shoot up the car. Nobody was shooting at them much less the people in the car. They are negligent. An intervening factor.

[localroger]

42. Well I didn't leave that hole

It's pretty much how the law works and has been applied many times. There is no such intervening factor exception. The cops were responding to gunfire, and returning fire may not be the best way to do that but good luck getting them disciplined for it, much less convicted of a crime. It just doesn't work that way, even if a reasonable person would think it should.

[OnlinePoker]

28. It doesn't say in the article, but they were also charged with 5 counts of attempted murder

One for the person shot in the initial gunfight and four others wounded by police in their barrage.

[Demovictory9]

39. Wow cops were shooting wildly

[Decoy of Fenris]

34. This is a goddamn tragedy. :/ poor sweetheart. RIP, Fanta Bility. n/t

Related, fuck the cops who killed her. And fuck the hormone-jacked shitweevils who started all of it.

Sweet little angel deserved better than this.

[LiberalFighter]

38. Police continue to lower themselves.

State legislators and judges need to hold them accountable.

[TheRealNorth]

41. If this law was applied evenly....

The MAGATS that broke the law on 1/6 would be charged for the killing of Ashley Babbit.

[localroger]

43. The legal theory definitely supports that

The practical problem is that it was such a large crowd that finding an individual to pin it on is difficult, and charging hundreds of people with murder for the death of one person (or even a few) is a hard sell even for a dedicated prosecution. The cop who shot Ashli has been exonerated though, just as these may be.

[marie999]

44. Just add the charge to anyone that they are charging for other reasons.