Sharon Hill police killed his cousin. Now he is Delaware County’s new reform-minded sheriff

Siddiq Kamara remembers standing side by side with his aunt outside of the Delaware County courthouse and calling for changes in how police are trained after a stray bullet fired by Sharon Hill police officers killed his cousin Fanta Bility.

Three years later, his office is inside that same building.

Kamara, 30, became the youngest sheriff in Delaware County history when he cruised to victory in November with 63% of the vote. The son of Liberian immigrants, Kamara is a born-and-raised Delco native who turned his family’s tragedy into a platform for improving the way community policing is carried out in his home county.

“The people in Delaware County, I’m here to work with them, and my office is going to do that every single day,” he said.

“This is the greatest country in the world. Being 30, being Muslim, being a first generation immigrant and being the sheriff of one of the biggest counties in Pennsylvania, it’s unheard of. And I don’t take that lightly.”

In his first six months in office, Kamara equipped all of his deputies with body cameras and beefed up recruiting efforts, including open fitness tests throughout the county, to help fill the 35 vacancies he inherited. He’s mandated de-escalation and regular firearms training for his deputies, in memory of his cousin.

Delaware County Council President Monica Taylor said Kamara is bringing a fresh perspective to a row office that often gets overlooked.

“He doesn’t just talk. He does the work,” Taylor said. “That’s what makes him a great public servant. He’s bringing everyone to the table to make these improvements.”

That’s notable for a county sheriff, given the role traditionally, doesn’t require officials to stray too far beyond the county courthouse. But Kamara wants to change that, making sure he and his deputies are a frequent presence in the towns they serve.

That desire comes from Kamara’s own experience. After serving six years in the Army National Guard, Kamara became a police officer in Yeadon. He later took a job in the state Attorney General’s Office, working in various roles including narcotics and the personal protection detail for then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Kamara’s cultural background and linguistic skills — he speaks African dialects including Mandingo and Fula, as well as French — were called upon by federal investigators as they built their case against Laye Sekou Camara, a Liberian war criminal.

He said he became a police officer because so many people in his community in Upper Darby, drawing on their experiences in their home countries, were distrustful of police.

“We interact with the public every single day, and sometimes these individuals, we’re not getting them at their happiest time. It’s their most vulnerable time, and you have to use empathy,” he said. “So we’ve been sending some of our supervisors to trainings so they can understand the tools when they’re out there in the community and they can teach their fellow colleagues how to de-escalate situations.”

But when Fanta Bility was gunned down in August 2021, Kamara’s professional ambitions changed. The 8-year-old was struck by a stray bullet after three Sharon Hill officers opened fire toward a crowd leaving a high school football game. They were aiming at a car they mistakenly believed was the source of a nearby shooting.

Those officers were later fired and pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. But Kamara knew something had to change.

“If you understand what happened that day to my cousin, cops, unfortunately, we can’t make mistakes. It costs people’s lives,“ he said. ”And, that day, it cost my cousin’s life, so I wanted to make sure that in my capacity, as the sheriff, our officers are properly trained.”

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a Democrat who sponsored a bill nicknamed “Fanta’s Law” that would require all Delaware County police departments to be accredited and receive annual use-of-force training, has been a mentor and friend to Kamara for years.

“Back then, he was annoying,” Williams joked. “But he learned from my team, and it grew from him just being unapologetically persistent and curious, to him understanding he has a real value.”

From Kamara’s early days of volunteering at political events, it was clear to Williams that he was dedicated to public service. “Fanta’s Law,” Williams said, is their latest collaboration.

“He’s here to improve things, not just here to say ‘I have a title and have a position,’” Williams said. “It’s clear he wants to find out how to use this position to improve the office and also improve the lives of people who don’t even know about the office.”

Kamara, for his part, said he’s thankful for the opportunity to enact change in the county that raised him.

“When you’re in an office, and I teach my deputies this all the time, is that we do the protection part, but we’ll forget sometimes about serving,” he said. “And serving goes a long way.”