The case had been set to go to trial next week. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and "negligent firing of a weapon causing death". In 2019, Jones' family agreed to an $8.5 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement against the city of Detroit in connection with the raid. The First 48 photographer Allison Howard was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. The little girl in the video was based on a true story, according to MTV.com. Lil James brought along a .357 Magnumat the behest of Jones, Detective Williams testified, because Jones was afraid someone would try to steal his diamond Cartier glasses.. Aiyana Jones' step aunt Kayia White and step mom Dominique Simpson, right, sit on the front porch next to a blood spattered sofa in Detroit on . Al Sharpton spoke her eulogy. The appellatecourt ruledthe presiding judge in Jones'case hadn'tadequately answered jurors' questionsduring deliberations. She told me that JeReans best friend Chaise Sherrors, 17, had been murdered the night beforean innocent bystander who took a bullet in the head as he was on a porch clipping someones hair. To me, thats like writing about the surf conditions in the Gaza Strip. Look at the Trending Topics on Twitter. The family of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Detroit police officers, following a raid that led to the death of the child. No weapons were found on ANY person in the house after the raid, including Charles Jones and Aiyana's mother Dominika, Aiyana and her two toddler brothers, Mertilla Jones and her sister, and two adult cousins of Charles. He was charged twice with involuntary manslaughter, but both cases ended in mistrials. (Theyd jerry-rigged a contraption where the fax pushes a door hinge, which falls on a screw wired to an actual alarm.) A few minutes after that, JeReans mother, Lyvonne Cargill, arrived and got behind the wheel of the car that friends had dragged him into. Sharptons full of shit, said JeReans mother. They turned on the lights and saw that she had been shot.. Why would anyone move a gunshot victim, much less toss him in a car? Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? The police were . A seven-year-old Black girl was fatally during a raid in Detroit, Michigan Police Department in 2010. [5] Six individuals, who chained themselves to a Detroit Police Department precinct, were arrested Wednesday evening during a rally honoring Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year old who was shot and. 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 . Tens of thousands of them, hundreds of thousands. Grover 08:10, 10 June 2014 (UTC) Reply . 20072023 Blackpast.org. Was Detroit an outlier or an epicenter? 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. But I cant accept it because they lied about it. That night, she was murdered by the very people meant to "protect" and "serve" her. Mertilla Jones, 46, and her grandaughter, Aiyana Jones, 7, were asleep on a couch in their lower flat's front room at about 12:30 a.m. when police tossed an incendiary stun grenade through the window directly above the couch. A bunch of lazy, uneducated blue-collar incompetents. He looked at Chauncey Owens the wrong way, detectives say. She was only a baby, man. The red halo around his skull gave the scene a feeling of serenity. But in Evans defense, he seemed to understand one thing: After the collapse of the car industry and the implosion of the real estate bubble, there is little else Detroit has to export except its misery. Whenever I see a person who died of violence or misadventure, I think about the dead man with the open eyes on the dirty floor of the liquor store. Sometimes they come in a Crown Victoria with only a defibrillator and a blanket, because there are no other units available. When I was a teenager, my mother owned a struggling little flower shop on the East Side, not far from where Aiyana was killed. His murder led to the police raid that killed Aiyana.With large swaths of the city rewildingempty lots are returning to prairie and woodland as the city depopulatesSoutheastern was slated to absorb students from nearby Kettering High this year as part of a massive school-consolidation effort. "My sugar is going up from stress. The city filled with people from all over the world: Arabs, Appalachians, Poles, African Americans, all in their separate neighborhoods surrounding the factories. Maybe because the cameras were rolling, maybe because a Detroit police officer had been murdered two weeks earlier while trying to apprehend a suspect. Moreover, the Detroit public school system is the worst performer in the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, with nearly 80 percent of eighth-graders unable to do basic math. In this shit, a one-year-old played next door, barefoot. [12], An A&E reality TV television crew was accompanying the police Special Response Team gathering footage for The First 48. It is a matter of conditioning, Cargill later told me. The judge said she's willing to be the "scapegoat" if critics don't like the result. It fired. She arrived too late. For years it was the all-but-official policy of the newspapers to ignore the black city, since the majority of readers lived in the predominantly white suburbs. They drove her there every morning, five miles. A wary Detroit police officer keeps watch over an unruly crowd after an arrest on the East Side.The judge, Cynthia Gray Hathaway, set his bond at $20,000only 10 percent of which was due upfrontand adjourned the trial without explanation, according to the docket. Desperation, she said, feels like someones reaching down your throat and ripping out your guts. Chief Evans might have survived it all, had he, too, not been drawn to the lights of Hollywood. Sharptons full of shit, said Cargill, a brassy 39-year-old who works as a stock clerk at Target. Do a Google search for "Aiyana Jones" and you get just 42,200 results. In this way, what happened to J Cole's daughter? [12], Owens was later found guilty of Blake's murder. The silent suffering.. An investigation was promised. Parts of the Detroit River are now clean enough for swimming. Furthermore, the police department and unnamed supervisors of the Special Response Team in the city of Detroit were being sued for violating the civil rights of Aiyana Jones through their training and policy procedure. That tape never aired, but it was used as evidence in Weekleys two trials for Aiyanas death. [50][bettersourceneeded] The casket was white and was afterwards driven to the grave by horse-drawn carriage. Barry, who said he had been gassed and maced and had guns pointed at him while attending demonstrations, including in Ferguson, Missouri, said the militarization of police was part of a long history and heritage of crackdown on communities of color in America, including the post-9/11 crackdown on Muslim and Arab communities. Much of the firefighters equipment was substandard: Their boots had holes; they were alerted to fires by fax from the central office. But the real mystery behind Officer Huffs murder is why Gibson was out on the street in the first place. Fieger responded by saying he does not have the supposed video,[57] which he claims was made by the A&E Network reality show The First 48. The civil rights lawsuit, which alleges officers attempted to cover-up how Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed, names Officer Joseph Weekley, Robert Rowe, the Detroit Police Department, and the city . The crime most likely happened at the . . The Detroit Free Press has more details here. JeRean knew badness was on its way and called his mother to come pick him up. But if it wasnt for them, the city population would have sunk further than it did. She refused to let me see the original paper file, despite the fact that it is a public record, and has said that she cant comment on the case because she might preside in the trial against Gibson. That is, until someone realized that the schools are controlled by rival gangs. It regards itself as the temple of a new gospel of progress, to which I shall venture to give the name of Detroitism.. They had time, a Detroit police detective told me. The graduation rate for Detroit schoolkids hovers around 35 percent (PDF). Forget what you saw, little man. Evans told me then that major crimes were routinely underreported by 20 percent. The manslaughter trial was declared a mistrial. "Aiyana's death was a tragic loss for her family and has been a heavy burden on our community. Danny Wilcox Frazier is a contributing photographer for Mother Jones. Do you got a problem or something? Then eight, then eleven. But there is no money; the struggling school system has a $363 million deficit. [31] In June 2013, Howard pleaded "no contest" to the obstruction of justice charge, and the perjury charge was dismissed. What the hell you doing up here for? Weekley doesnt have to pay but the family that lost a child has to pay, said Ron Scott, a spokesman for the family, shortly after attending the dismissal hearing. A total, unfortunate fuck-up.. No Glue or Lace Hiring Black Folks. Can she be blamed for that? AIYANA WAS LAID TO REST six days after her killing. Have him call me, and then hung up the phone. The jury stall resulted in seven voting "not guilty" and five voting "guilty". "It isn't the judge's decisions that caused these juries to not reach a decision," she said. Blame the Federal Reserve. Charlie LeDuff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, filmmaker, and multimedia reporter. He caught a lunch lady stealing the childrens milk money. But police officials have refused to discuss how one got shot in the foot. Weekley claimed his gun accidentally went off as he struggled with the girls grandmother, Mertilla Jones. [41][44][45][46] Because of Mertilla Jones's outburst, the judge stopped the trial until September 29. JeReans mother drove as he gurgled in the backseat. The department decided to withdraw him from active duty shortly after the shooting on May 16, 2010. The Rev. and Weekley for the unlawful use of excessive force. It's hurting me. But the SWAT team didnt wait. Inexplicably, its carcass still stands and burns incessantly. Weekley claimed Aiyana Jones' paternal grandmother, Mertilla Jones, attempted to slap his MP5 submachine gun, causing it to fire. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Jones had just gone to bed after covering his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana with her favorite blanket. [12], According to press reports, police were on the scene by 12:40a.m. on Sunday, May 16, 2010. [54][55], Attorney Fieger claimed that footage, from an undisclosed source, showed that the lethal bullet came from outside the home, rather than inside, as police said. Juries twice failed to reach a verdict in Weekleys case, first in June 2013 and then in October 2014. Predictably, Gibson did not show for his new court date. First, it was six cops who responded to the 911 call. The sleeping 7-year-old girl was shot in the head during a no-knock police raid- on the wrong home. A thousand people attended, as did the predictable plump of media. Police arrested Mertilla, administered tests for drugs and gunpowder, and released her Sunday morning. She said she made no contact with any officers. Nevertheless, Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans issued a statement May 18. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Officer Joseph Weekley, the lead commandowhod been featured before on another A&E show, Detroit SWATburst into the house. Go. He wore a gold bracelet as thick as a gymnasium rope. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Aiyana Jones settlement On April 4, Attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced that the City of Detroit had agreed to an $8.2 million settlement in the 2010 slaughter of Aiyana Jones, 7, by another joint task force incuding Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley during a military-style assault on her grandmother Mertilla Jones' home. But it was dark. 91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 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. The story rated three paragraphs in the daily papers, and the media never followed up. 1:46 Detroit After nearly five years, the officer who accidentally killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones during a raid being filmed by a TV camera crew has been restored to active duty as a. Jones was born on July 20, 2002, to Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley in Detroit, Michigan. You might point to the trade agreements of the Clinton years, which allowed American manufacturers to leave the country by the back door. Rayshard Brooks was a 27-year-old African American restaurant worker who lived in Atlanta. [32][33] Allison Howard was sentenced to two years of probation in July 2013, and fined $2,000. Cargill said her two surviving children, a 30-year-old daughter and son, 22, took the news of Jones' pending release hard. What did? Weekley, a member of an elite police unit, was the first officer through the door during a chaotic . 2:45 Detroit Charles Jones, whose role in a high school student's 2010 slaying helped spark the police raid that ended with the officer-involved shooting death of his 7-year-old daughter. Owens, a habitual criminal, was arrested upstairs minutes after Aiyanas shooting and charged for the slaying of JeRean. Not to worry: The city had its own welfare system, decades before Lyndon Johnsons Great Society. This has helped reinforce a culture shift within police departments. Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. Aiyana Mo'nay Stanley-Jones was asleep on the sofa when a police SWAT team hurled a flash-bang grenade into the apartment and smashed the front door down. 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. "She's not a scapegoat. [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. It was a sweatbox, and I went across the street to the liquor store for a soda pop. 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. I get no sleep. The family is seeking $7.5 million in damages and a jury trial conceded by the court filing. During the second trial, Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway dismissed the most serious charge, involuntary manslaughter, saying there was insufficient evidence. Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. Capitol Commission moves toward firearm ban, Biden's student loan relief faces its biggest test yet at the Supreme Court, Jury to decide fate of Detroit cop who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Second trial begins for Detroit police officer who shot Aiyana Jones, Detroit officer faces misdemeanor charge in Aiyana Jones's death; jury deliberating. The family of a 7-year-old who was fatally shot during a botched raid in 2010 is suing Detroit police, alleging officers lied about how she was killed as part of a cover-up. Newspapers made little of ituntil the US Attorney revealed that the federal monitor of the decree was having an affair with the priapic mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was forced to resign, and now sits in prison convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. The house on the other side is in much the same state. Jones, 25, a slight man with frizzy braids, wore a dingy T-shirt. The illiteracy, child poverty, and unemployment rates hover around 50 percent. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a. Owens was convicted of first-degree murderand sentenced to life in prison. As Detroit led the nation in median income and homeownership, automation and foreign competition were forcing companies like Packard to shutter their doors. Officers deployeda "flash bang" grenadeand kicked in the front door, and raid team leader Joseph Weekley led the crewinto the house. And then hung up the phone Evans might have survived it all, had he, too, been... 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