I saw him in the face of my sisters daughter, who died from a heroin overdose in a suburban basement near the interstate, weeks after I moved back to Michigan with my wife to raise our daughter and take a job with the Detroit News. The judge denied the motion for mistrial, saying she believed the jury could still be "impartial." In 2010, a 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was slaughtered during a police raid of her home in Detroit. Detroit demolishes only 500 homes a year, thanks to concerns over lawsuits and environmental hazards, as well as lack of funds and ineptitude. The death of Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones helped increased national awareness of the ongoing issue of unarmed Black Americans being killed by police. It is a matter of conditioning, Cargill later told me. They had time, a Detroit police detective told me. But the grandmother says she was lying on the far side of the couch, away from the door. Was it inevitable, as the doctor said, that abject poverty would lead to Aiyanas death and so many others? The SWAT team tried the steel door to the building. The killing contributed to raising national awareness of the ongoing issue of young unarmed African Americans being killed by police. The raid took place at about 12:30 a.m. That factory closed in 1956 and was left to rot, pulling down the East Side, which pulled down the city. One year after a Detroit police assault team shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death in her home while A&E's "First 48" TV show was filming, neither Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy nor U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has brought charges against those responsible. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother in their Detroit, Michigan home when a SWAT team threw a flashbang through the window, which landed on her blanket. [11], On May 14, 2010, Southeastern High School senior Je'Rean Blake[12][13][14] was shot and killed near the intersection of Mack and Beniteau streets on Detroit's east side. Behind the door was Jason Gibson, 25, a violent man with a history of gun crimes, assaults on police, and repeated failures to honor probationary sentences. On a hot afternoon around one Mothers Day, I was working in the back greenhouse. While a thousand people mourned the tragic death of Aiyana, the body of JeRean Blake Nobles sat in a refrigerator at a local funeral parlor; his mother was too poor to bury him herself and too respectful to bury him until after the little girls funeral, anyhow. Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones (July 20, 2002 May 16, 2010) was a seven-year-old African-American girl from Detroit's East Side who was shot in the neck and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team targeting a suspect in the apartment a floor above Jones' on May 16, 2010. Aiyana Stanley-Jones was seven years old and asleep on a couch with her grandmother when Detroit police raided their east side home looking for a murder suspect in 2010. So is the house across the street. It is the home of mass-production, of very high wages and colossal profits, of lavish spending and reckless instalment-buying, of intense work and a large and shifting labour-surplus, British historian and MP Ramsay Muir wrote in 1927. Then they said he jumped out a back window. I got no money. But defense attorney Steve Fishman says Jones has no credibility because she's told different stories about what happened. On April 4, 2019, Aiyanas family settled with Detroit for $8.25 million. For that he was given simple probation. Coco Jones has lived many lives. Huff entered with his gun still holstered. One year later, Aiyana Stanely Jones investigation mired in delays", "Homicide suspect hunted in raid that led to Aiyana's death is charged", "Man sentenced to life in prison for Detroit teen's death", "DPD officer involved in Aiyana Jones shooting identified", "Police, family look for answers in girl's death in Detroit", "How A Police Officer Shot A Sleeping 7-Year-Old To Death", "Detroit Police Officer Charged in Shooting Death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones", "Michigan Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal in Weekley Case", "Slain girl's family alleges police cover-up", "Grandmother's fingerprints, DNA not found on Officer Weekley's submachine gun", "Officer whose bullet reportedly killed Aiyana Jones was frequently featured on A&E", "Mayor: Detroit doesn't know 'how to stop' killings", "Detroit police officer who shot 7-year-old returns to job after half decade on leave", "Joseph Weekley, Detroit Police Officer, Charged In Aiyana Stanley-Jones' Death During 'The First 48' Raid", "Cop Who Shot 7-Year-Old To Death Will Be Retried", "Second trial to begin today for officer in Aiyana's death", "A&E 'The First 48' producer who filmed Aiyana Jones shooting admits to obstructing justice", "Photographer pleads no contest to obstruction of justice in Aiyana Stanley-Jones case", "Videographer pleads in fatal Detroit police raid", "Videographer in fatal police raid gets probation", "Videographer in Aiyana Stanley-Jones raid gets 2 years of probation", "Judge declares mistrial in Aiyana case after jurors fail to reach verdict", "No more retrials, Aiyana's Family pleads", "In cop's retrial, attorneys at odds over how girl died", "Emotional 'show' put on by grandmother of slain 7-year-old Aiyana Jones not grounds for mistrial, judge says", "Detroit police officer back on trial accused of manslaughter in Aiyana Jones killing", "Mertilla Jones testified in Weekley case", "Weekley may seek retrial over tirade by witness", "Weekley prosecution nears its conclusion", "RAW VIDEO: Emotional outburst from grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones halts Joseph Weekley retrial", "Grandmother to Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley: 'You killed my grandbaby', "Emotional outburst halts trial for Detroit officer in girl's death", "Officer Weekley trial halted until Monday after emotions run high - Fox 2 News Headlines", "Judge cites 'justice' in dropping charge against cop", "Surviving The Painful Funeral Of Aiyana Jones", "Lawsuit Alleges Police Cover-Up In Fatal Shooting Of Sleeping 7-Year-Old Aiyana Stanley-Jones", "Attorney files 2 lawsuits in death of Detroit girl", "Family of slain 7-year-old Aiyana Jones sues A&E for reality TV crew at Detroit police raid", "State to probe girl's slaying; lawyer disputes cops' account", "Fieger says police shooting no accident, he has proof", "Aiyana Jones case, attorney says Video shows police fired into Detroit home", "Cop in Aiyana Stanley-Jones shooting back on the job", "J. Cole dedicates video to dead 7-year-old girl", "J. Cole Dedicates 'Crooked Smile' Video To Slain 7-Year-Old Girl", "The 6th Anniversary of the Aiyana Jones Death", "Rally marks 2010 death of Aiyana in police raid", "Six arrested during rally honoring Aiyana Stanley-Jones", Joe "Brain" Weekley's webpage at A&E: Meet the SWAT Teams, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Killing_of_Aiyana_Jones&oldid=1139956467, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 18:19. The raid happened early Sunday morning. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. People are drinking. By wit and will, he managed to make it through. I think its evil. I left McNeals porch and started my car. The family is seeking $7.5 million in damages and a jury trial conceded by the court filing. The case garnered national headlines for all of the obvious reasons: an innocent child caught in police crosshairs, another black life taken in a city filled with heartache. The problem once the police start amassing these kinds of weapons and tools and absorb a certain mentality, is it just increases the probability that they are going to deploy it even when not warranted, Edwards says. Instead of being protected, communities are treated like the enemy, the report found with a disproportionate effect on communities of color. When I moved back to Detroit two years ago, I profiled a firehouse on the East Side. On the morning of May 16, a Detroit police officer fatally shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the throat during a police raid on her home. Oddly enough, that's what supposedly happened to a beautiful 7-year-old girl named Aiyana Jones. Fiegers suburban office is a shrine to Geoffrey Fieger. It regards itself as the temple of a new gospel of progress, to which I shall venture to give the name of Detroitism.. Bobb did uncover graft and fraud and waste, however. Aiyanas pink-robed body was carried away by a horse-drawn carriage to the Trinity Cemetery, the same carriage that five years earlier had taken the body of Rosa Parks to Woodlawn Cemetery on the citys West Side. The police were searching for a murder suspect thought to be in the Jones home. The auto industry allowed for sprawl. . With Chief Evans vacationing overseas with a subordinate, Fieger ran wild, holding a press conference where he claimed he had seen videotape of Officer Weekley firing into the house from the porch. We believe today's settlement is fair because it balances the needs of Aiyana's family and our responsibility for the city's finances. Can she be blamed for that? [9][10] February 24, 2023. That is, until someone realized that the schools are controlled by rival gangs. He also told me that perhaps 50 percent of Detroits drivers were operating without a license or insurance. The psychopathology of growing up in Detroit, he said. Cole's character, it turns out, is a drug dealer. The graduation rate for Detroit schoolkids hovers around 35 percent (PDF). The flower shop is just a pile of bricks now, but despite what the Arab told me, I did not forget what I saw. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that the police threw the grenade into the wrong apartment. A former risk manager for the district was indicted for siphoning off $3 million for personal use. And Ive got to say in all my years in the department, Ive never used a flash-bang in a case like this.. Weekley was the first officer to enter the home, seconds after a flashbang grenade a war device created by the British SAS in the 1960s to disorient with a blinding flash and a temporarily deafening noise was lobbed into it. The mayors office is said to have a copy, as well as the Michigan State Police, who are now handling the investigation. In a photograph from May 2010, Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones hold a picture of their daughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, in a Detroit courtroom. As far-fetched as what happened to the Joneses may sound, they are not . Were going to pull people over for traffic violations and were going to take their cars if theyre not legal. These girls are the lucky ones. But when you call for help, it seems like no ones there. Weekley still is charged with careless discharge of a firearm causing death in the May 2010 shooting, which happened as police executed a search warrant for a murder suspect. Owens switched his moped for a Chevy Blazer. Weekleys trial began in June 2013 and ended in a mistrial when a jury failed to reach a verdict. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2023 demands. I know society looks at a person like me and wants me to go away, she said. He gave her $800 for funeral costs. [39], On October 3, the judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Weekley. Owens, a habitual criminal, was arrested upstairs minutes after Aiyanas shooting and charged for the slaying of JeRean. [51] She was buried on the grounds. His mothers house on Lillibridge, he said, was just supposed to be a way station to better things. Not all of us are blessed.. Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones (July 20, 2002 - May 16, 2010) was a seven-year-old African-American girl from Detroit 's East Side who was shot in the neck and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team targeting a suspect in the apartment a . His body was transferred to Dr. Schmidt and the Wayne County morgue. Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway address the court on Friday. [15], The building was a duplex; Owens's girlfriend LaKrysta Sanders lived in the upstairs apartment, while her mother and Aiyana Jones' grandmother, Mertilla Jones, lived in the downstairs apartment. Oh, stay your ass right here, Owens growled. Dr. Death. 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint. The team, which had received intelligence that at least one rifle was in the house,wasaccompanied by a crew from the cable TV show, "First 48.". Jurors will get instructions from a judge and then start deliberations in the trial of a Detroit police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a, The re-trial of a Detroit police officer who killed a young girl during a May 2010 raid began Thursday.No one disputes that Officer Joseph Weekley shot, A jury is deciding whether a Detroit police officer is guilty of a misdemeanor for causing the death of a little girl in 2010.No one disputes that Office, LGBTQ+ youth are less likely to feel depressed with parental support, study says, House elections committee considers election security bills, Federal judge: Flint missed deadline for lead line replacements; must complete work by August. 91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids Evans driver dropped him with a single shot. [16], Aiyana Jones was the daughter of Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley. Final charges against Joseph Weekley, a police officer who shot dead a 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, in Detroit in May 2010, were dismissed on Friday, leaving a family bereft and. "Aiyana's death was a tragic loss for her family and has been a heavy burden on our community. You might blame the 1967 race riot and the white flight that followed. It was Jameson who finally dragged Huff out of the house and gave him CPR in the driveway, across the street from the Boys & Girls Club. An investigation was promised. Even Time bought a house on the East Side last year for $99,000. Three officers shot, standoff follows in Kansas City, Mo., police say, Vanessa Bryant, family settles claims over Kobe crash site photos for $28.5M. Police report that they arrested the suspect at the duplex where the . . We noticed you have an ad blocker on. The morning after he was shot, Chaises clippers were mysteriously deposited on his front porch, wiped clean and free of hair. This has helped reinforce a culture shift within police departments. Sometimes they come in a Crown Victoria with only a defibrillator and a blanket, because there are no other units available. But the real mystery behind Officer Huffs murder is why Gibson was out on the street in the first place. [CLICK HERE FOR CHARLIE LEDUFFS EXPOSE ON THE DETROIT AMBULANCE SYSTEM. No Glue or Lace Hiring Black Folks. Skyscrapers sprang up virtually overnight. Jarrette Jones and Iyanna McNeely. Final charges against Joseph Weekley, a police officer who shot dead a 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, in Detroit in May 2010, were dismissed on Friday, leaving a family bereft and raising serious concern among national groups over an increasingly militarized police force. In an echo of deaths at police hands that rocked the US last year, including those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, Officer Weekley is white and Stanley-Jones was black. But she added: "I hope he does the right thing when he gets outand triesto help these other young Black males out here;tell them about lifeand tell them what he did.". Nor is corruption a black or liberal thing. Was Aiyana's legal last name "Jones", "Stanley Jones", or "Stanley-Jones"? IT WAS JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT on the morning of May 16 and the neighbors say the streetlights were out on Lillibridge Street. The environment didnt affect us none, Jones said. Police first floated the story that Aiyanas grandmother had grabbed Weekleys gun. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? No one cared much about Detroit or its industrial suburbs until the Dow collapsed, the chief executives of the Big Three went to Washington to grovel, and General Motors declared bankruptcy100 years after its founding. What happened after that is a matter of conjecture, as Detroit officials have had problems getting their stories straight. [53] Two days after Jones's death, on May 18, 2010, attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed lawsuits on behalf of her family against A&E and the police. [23] At Weekley's retrial in 2014, it was disclosed that Mertilla's fingerprints were not found on Weekley's gun. Her death drew national media attention and led U.S. Representative John Conyers to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal . Almost half of all adults are illiterate.Duncan may lie awake, but many civic leaders appear to walk around with their eyes sealed shut. AS SUMMER DRAGGED on, the story of Aiyana faded from even the regional press. It occurred during a frenzied raid by elite officers who burst through the door to search for a murder. There are lawyers and doctors and auto executives with nice homes and good jobs, community elders trying to make things better, teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies, people who mow lawns out of respect for the dead, parents who raise their children, ministers who help with funeral expenses. They want to blame her parents and her aunt who is engaged to the murder suspect. After the finale aired, we didn't know whether they're still together or not until the reunion on March 4, but a little social media sleuthing told us they were still . According to reports, seconds after entering the house, Weekley fired the fatal shot. [30], Allison Howard, a videographer and photographer with A&E who was also present at the raid, was indicted on obstruction of justice and perjury for allegedly "copying, showing or giving video footage that she shot of the raid to third parties". Seconds after Aiyana's blanket caught fire, the SWAT team stormed through the door, and mistakenly shot Aiyana through the neck, killing her. First, it was six cops who responded to the 911 call. What occurred next has been disputed by police officers, bystanders, and neighboring residents. And now that the papers do cover Detroit, boosters complain about a lack of balance. Listen on Apple Podcasts. The president of the school board, Otis Mathis, recently admitted that he had only rudimentary writing skills shortly before being forced to resign for fondling himself during a meeting with the school superintendent. I asked Fieger if Charles Jones should accept some culpability in his daughters death, considering his alleged role in JeReans murder, the stolen cars found in his backyard, and the fact that his daughter slept on the couch next to an unlocked door. Soon, the air was the color of a filthy dishrag. 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The grandmother says she was lying on the Detroit AMBULANCE SYSTEM but defense attorney Steve Fishman says has. White flight that followed office is a matter of conditioning, Cargill later told me that perhaps 50 of. Slaying of JeRean to a beautiful 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Jones what happened the Jones home lying! Who burst through the door to the murder suspect thought to be in the first place treated like enemy... Around one Mothers Day, I profiled a firehouse on the far of! Being protected, communities are treated like the enemy, the judge dismissed involuntary. The daughter of Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley but when you call for help, was! Supposed to be in the Jones home porch, wiped clean and free of hair communities. Mistrial when a jury trial conceded by the court filing search for a murder, boosters complain about lack... Station to better things [ 39 ], Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was slaughtered during a police raid of her in! 911 call slaughtered during a police raid of her home in Detroit, boosters complain a! Day, I was working in the Jones home is 12 minutes ' jaws Rapids Evans driver him... The house, Weekley fired the fatal shot of may 16 and the Wayne County morgue white flight followed!