For community members and advocates, the bigger question is why a Swat team was deployed in the first place. The death of Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones helped increased national awareness of the ongoing issue of unarmed Black Americans being killed by police. By wit and will, he managed to make it through. The psychopathology of growing up in Detroit, he said. Jones new family had been on the drift for the past few years as he tried to pull it together. [12] At the time of the incident Aiyana Jones was asleep on the couch in front room of the downstairs apartment. "(Jones is) the one who gave (Owens) the gun to kill their brother. Sherrors was killed by a stray bullet while cutting a friends hair on a front porch just 27 days after JeRean died. He assigned the SWAT team the job of rounding up murder suspects, a task that had previously been done by detectives. The prisoner has not incurred any serious misconducts while in prison. Look at the Trending Topics on Twitter. Barry, who has been active in demonstrations against police violence and whose organization has mounted a formal campaign to demilitarize the police, said there were two separate justice systems in the US. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? 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. Owens was convicted of first-degree murderand sentenced to life in prison. Was it death by TV? It is like that all over Detroit, where whole blocks regularly go dark with no warning or any apparent pattern. Was Detroit an outlier or an epicenter? Im trying to find him, Sheffield complained. These girls are the lucky ones. The judge said she's willing to be the "scapegoat" if critics don't like the result. By parental neglect? I saw him in the face of my sister, who died a violent death in a filthy section of Detroit a decade ago. In Los Angeles, by comparison, the unsolved-murder rate is 22 percent. In Detroit, the official response time of an ambulance to a 911 call is 12 minutes. On January 28, 2015, a prosecutor cleared Weekley of the last remaining charge against him, ensuring there would not be a third trial. While other American metropolises have gotten control of their murder rate, Detroits remains where it was during the crack epidemic. [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. Forget about it. They made it to the trauma ward, where JeRean was pronounced dead. And Ive got to say in all my years in the department, Ive never used a flash-bang in a case like this.. Im stuck. 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 . May 16, 2010, 7-year-old Aiyana was asleep on her couch, wrapped in her Hannah Montana blanket. Even the beavers have returned.The daughter of an autoworker and a home nurse, McNeal grew up in the promise of the black middle class that Detroit once offered. [41][44][45][46] Because of Mertilla Jones's outburst, the judge stopped the trial until September 29. The Rust Belt. A dollhouse sits in an empty lot not far from where Aiyana was shot by the police officers storming her home.It was a total fuck-up, the official said. The department was also cited for excessive force after people died in lockup and at the hands of rogue cops. . . Its some lil niggas at the store talking shitlets go whip they ass, Detective Theopolis Williams later testified that Owens told him during his interrogation. Detroit has since made little progress on the federal consent decree. The gimmick was to have its reporters live there and chronicle the decline of the Motor City for one year. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a. I need help. It also allowed a man to escape the smoldering city. Three officers shot, standoff follows in Kansas City, Mo., police say, Vanessa Bryant, family settles claims over Kobe crash site photos for $28.5M. They were wondering if the Rust Belt cancer had metastasized and was creeping to Los Angeles and London and Barcelona. A total, unfortunate fuck-up.. The environment got nothing to do with kids.. Inside, splayed on the floor underneath the rack of snack cakes near the register, was a black man in a pool of blood. Outside, a reality television crew filmed the events for A&E. Sheffield came to see Cargill. On Thursday, a settlement was made in the lawsuit that amounted to $8.25 being paid out. [11], The jury claimed that race did not affect the decision of their verdict. DETROITS EAST SIDE is now the poorest, most violent quarter of Americas poorest, most violent big city. Owens, a habitual criminal, was arrested upstairs minutes after Aiyanas shooting and charged for the slaying of JeRean. Was Aiyana's legal last name "Jones", "Stanley Jones", or "Stanley-Jones"? The sleeping 7-year-old girl was shot in the head during a no-knock police raid- on the wrong home. Weekley will not go to a third trial. On his desk is a bronze bust of Geoffrey Fieger. Mertilla Jones was held overnight by Detroit police and then released. But our ammos so bad, we cant do ballistics testing. [49], Aiyana Jones' funeral was held in the Second Ebenezer Church on May 22, 2010 in Detroit. 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.". 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. He won't be in the field. Were taking whats left.. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. At the prosecutors request, Hathaway dismissed the last charge against Joseph Weekley. 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. A slender, pimply faced kid, JeRean was not an intimidating figure. But there is no money; the struggling school system has a $363 million deficit. 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.. So what? Fieger barked. As Detroit led the nation in median income and homeownership, automation and foreign competition were forcing companies like Packard to shutter their doors. 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 . It was unlocked. In 2010, a 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was slaughtered during a police raid of her home in Detroit. She was seven years old. Police officers came from Canada and across Michigan. He, too, was about to graduate from Southeastern High. The silent suffering.. [12] Weekley had been featured on another A&E police reality show, Detroit SWAT. If he didn't give him the gun, they feel like their brother would still be alive, and Aiyana would still be alive.". The Rev. I get no sleep. Responding to a breaking-and-entering and shots-fired call at 3:30 a.m., Officer Brian Huff, a 12-year veteran, walked into that dark house. As recently as this week, Fieger said in a press release, thatto date, theCity of Detroithas refused to participate in good faith in any resolution regarding Aiyana's death and continue to deny the family justice. This is not about policing, he said. His seven-year-old daughter, Aiyana Monay Stanley-Jones (PDF), slept on the couch as her grandmother watched television. The radio was tuned to NPR and A Prairie Home Companion came warbling out of my speakers. Weekleys trial began in June 2013 and ended in a mistrial when a jury failed to reach a verdict. It's been a year since 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Joneswas killed by members of a Detroit Special Response team. Owens got there first and shot JeRean clear through the chest with Lil James gun. Southeasterns motto is Age Quod Agis: Attend to Your Business. And JeRean did. In October 2011, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. 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. Which is what he was doing at this house, authorities contend, when he put three bullets in Officer Huffs face. The whole country knew it, and the whole country laughed. The city reached a peak population of 1.9 million people in the 1950s, and it was 83 percent white. February 24, 2023. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and But he doesnt return my calls. The mayors office is said to have a copy, as well as the Michigan State Police, who are now handling the investigation. He looked at Chauncey Owens the wrong way, detectives say. Adam Rose/Netflix In addition to traveling, the Chicago-based pair is looking at a potential move once Iyanna, 27, heads back to school to get her master's degree. After the fatal shooting, the video concludes with a message dedicated to Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year-old girl who was shot and killed during a police raid on her house in Detroit back in. Thats when Owens, 34, pulled up on a moped. Over 10 years ago, Detroit police executed a nighttime raid at a home on the city's east side in search of a murder suspect. 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. Jones pleaded guilty tosecond-degree murder and was sentenced to40-60 years, although in 2017 the Michigan Court of Appeals granted him a new trial. [12][17][18] Officer Weekley claimed that the flash grenade subsequently blinded his view of the person on the couch in the living room. Unclaimed bodies at the Wayne County MorgueTHE RAID ON THE Lillibridge house that took little Aiyanas life came two weeks and at least a dozen homicides after the last time police stormed into a Detroit home. The slap caused the gun to fire with the bullets striking young Aiyana in the head and killing her instantly. "This was an assassination by video," said Roland Lawrence as he and others watched a small plane . Social media and keyword searches can tell much about the popularity and worth of a topic. Shoddily equipped firemen face some 500 arsons a month.Detroit has been synonymous with arson since the 80s, when the city burst into flames in a pre-Halloween orgy of fire and destruction known as Devils Night. Word of the free milk and honey made its way down South, and the poor Negros and hillbillies flooded in. He computerized daily crime statistics, created a mobile strike force commanded by young and educated go-getters, and dispatched cops to crime hot spots. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Officers deployeda "flash bang" grenadeand kicked in the front door, and raid team leader Joseph Weekley led the crewinto the house. She arrived too late. But I would be doing Aiyana a disservice if we just vented instead of dealing with the real problems., He went on: This child is the breaking point.. Im not representing the father; Im speaking for the daughter. He also pointed out that while Jones remains a person of interest in JeReans murder, he has not been arrested. About 350 people are murdered each year in Detroit. [42] While Sanders was on the stand, Judge Cynthia Hathaway told her that she (Sanders) was being "disrespectful. Im alive. It all happened in a matter of seconds. The fact is a police officer threw the flash grenade through the window of the house that landed on Aiyana's blanket . The Detroit Police Department was in search of a murderer, and mistakenly raided Aiyana's home. [9][10] A fresh trial was scheduled for December 2013,[29] but actually began in September 2014. Thirty-four hours earlier, JeRean Blake Nobles, 17, had been shot outside a liquor store on nearby Mack Avenue; an informant had IDd a man named Chauncey Owens as the shooter and provided this address. His brother stood over the dead man, a pistol in his hand, keeping an eye on the door in case someone walked in wanting to settle things. "They said he'll be on parole until 2030, and he or his family can't be around my family. The civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court Wednesday by attorney Geoffrey Fieger over the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. I was thinking that, she said with tears. As our Detroit reporter, she is helping us expand our coverage of the economy, politics, and culture in and around the city of Detroit. Then, realizing that sounded implausible, they said shed brushed the gun as she ran past the door. So Dr. Schmidt keeps them on layaway, zipped up in body bags as family members wait for a ship to come in that never seems to arrive. The ones pictured here are all found on one block. Juries twice failed to reach a verdict in Weekleys case, first in June 2013 and then in October 2014. [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". Evans driver dropped him with a single shot. Sherrors mom, in white, lost another son to a bullet the previous year. He admitted in his first trial that, "It's my gun that shot and killed a 7-year-old girl. You might blame the UAW, which demanded things like full pay for idle workers, or myopic Big Three management who, instead of saying no, simply tacked the cost onto the price of a car. At its peak popularity, 810 fires were set in a three-day span. JEREAN BLAKE NOBLES was one of the rare black males in Detroit who made it (PDF) through high school. In 2007, he attacked a cop and tried to take his gun. She was sleeping and I told you all Let me get my granddaughter, and you didnt give me a chance. Within seconds, Weekleyfired hisMP5 rifle, killingAiyana, who was sleeping on the living room couch with her grandmother Mertilla Jones. [5] . [5] Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway presided over the case. Today75 years after the beavers disappeared from the Detroit RiverDetroitism means something completely different. / AP. I mean, hiring the Rosa Parks carriage?, I dont owe Sheffield shit, says Jones. Do you got a problem or something? . Police Chief James Craig stated, "He'll be in a limited duty capacity. Jones was born on July 20, 2002, to Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley in Detroit. Lyvonne Cargill wears a shirt that honors her son, JeRean Blake Nobles. Answer (1 of 77): A couple of punks confronted an unarmed black man with guns. I asked him if the way he was raising his daughter, the people he exposed her to, or the neighborhood where they livedwith its decaying houses and liquor storesmay have played a role. The Rev. A reality TV crew recorded the scene from the street. [65][unreliable source?] Clutching his juice in one hand and two dollars in the other, JeRean staggered across Mack Avenue and collapsed in the street. In a photograph from May 2010, Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones hold a picture of their daughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, in a Detroit courtroom. Terms of Service apply. Aiyana was sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother when, just after midnight, Officer Weekley's SWAT team threw a flashbang grenade through the living room window, setting fire to . He got paid exactly what he was supposed to be paid.. Im worried they went Hollywood, said a high-ranking Detroit police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation and simmering resentment in the streets. We believe some of them were struck by friendly fire, the high-ranking cop told me. The kids are dropping like flies and hes got nothing but useless words., CHECK OUT A SLIDESHOW OF ABANDONED HOUSES ON ONE BLOCK IN DETROIT, join us with a tax-deductible donation today. There are plenty of good people in Detroit, boosters like to say. "[42][43] He gave her $800 for funeral costs. 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