Detroit girl, 7, fatally shot by officer during search

[Cebu_4_2]

A 7-year-old Detroit girl was shot and killed this morning after a Detroit Police officer’s weapon discharged while executing a search warrant for a homicide suspect on the city’s east side, police said this morning.

The officer involved is on paid leave pending the investigation, said Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

The shooting occurred while officers from the police department’s Special Response Team were looking for a suspect connected to the Friday shooting death of 17-year-old Jarean Blake, a Southeastern High School student.

And it comes at a time when the city is reeling from two weeks of tragic shooting deaths — including that of Detroit Police Officer Brian Huff on May 3.

In today’s incident, officers threw a flash bang device — which causes a bright flash and noise — into a home in the 4000 block of Lillibridge on the city’s east side at about 12:45 a.m., and immediately entered, guns drawn, said Godbee.

A 46-year-old woman in the front room of the house had a physical tussle with the first officer and his gun discharged, hitting Aiyana Stanley Jones in the head and neck area, police said.

Medics with the team took her to St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The department’s chaplains have been in contact with the family, Godbee said.

• MORE: Read Godbee's full remarks on shooting

The shooting is still under investigation, he said. And the department offers its condolences to Aiyana’s family.

“We have executed countless high risk warrants where children have been present,” Godbee told the Free Press this morning. “This was a perfect storm for tragedy.”

The woman involved in the tussle has been taken into custody, as is the suspect sought in Blake’s death, although no charges have been issued yet.

Police did not release names of either the woman or the suspect. It’s unclear how or if Aiyana is related to either.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100516/NEWS01/100516012/1319/Detroit-girl-7-fatally-shot-by-officer-during-search

[Brent]

A 46-year-old woman in the front room of the house had a physical tussle with the first officer and his gun discharged, hitting Aiyana Stanley Jones in the head and neck area, police said.

If thats true it wasn't the officers fault.

If you are going to propel a SWAT team you have to be ready for it and if you aren't then there is no point resisting.

Wrestling (which is what this sounds like) with a SWAT team is like poking a bear with a stick, pointless and very dangerous. Not to mention stupid but with a name like Aiyana I expected nothing less.

[General of Darkness]

Sounds like an outstanding family.

RIP little one, it wasn't your fault you were brought into this world and the people that gave you life, and should have taken responsibility to protect you obviously failed.

(I know I'm saying this without knowing all the facts, but my guess is that the kid they were looking for was this ladies son, and the child was someone else's that they were watching during her time in jail. Just a guess)

[kregener]

She might actually be better off, than she would have been being...raised...by these folk.

[Mouse]

I disagree, first they use flash-bang swat team tactics to serve a warrant. Then they encounter resistance and apparently missed their female target, who could have been tased. Missed her not once, but at least twice, hitting the 7 year old kid in the head and neck. What are you going to do when you are awakened by a flash-bang?

[drafter]

The negligent discharge story sounds like damage control to me. The truth is more like "double tap" to the target, thus the head shot and the follow up hitting the neck or vice versa.

Family "sounds" like scumballs, but these days I typically give victims of stormtroopers the benefit of the doubt. Remember, if the "victim" is demonized it makes anything the stormtroopers do "justified".

[randymatt]

Maybe thought she was the family dog...?

[Twisted Titan]

The degligent discharge story sounds like damage control to me. The truth is more like "double tap" to the target, thus the head shot and the follow up hitting the neck or vice versa.

Family "sounds" like scumballs, but these days I typically give victims of stormtroopers the benefit of the doubt. Remember, if the "victim" is demonized it makes anything the stormtroopers do "justified".......................


DING!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!


ALWAYS I REPEAT ALWAYS BACK UP THE CILVILIAN

WHY??

BECAUSE THE COPS,DA,MEDIA THE CHEIF WILL ALWAYS BACK THEIR OWN.


T

[madfranks]

A 46-year-old woman in the front room of the house had a physical tussle with the first officer and his gun discharged, hitting Aiyana Stanley Jones in the head and neck area, police said.

"His gun discharged"...? So, was it the gun's fault then, or did someone actually pull the trigger to make it fire?

[silversurfer]

send the swat teams back to where they came from

wherever that is

[TPTB]

The degligent discharge story sounds like damage control to me. The truth is more like "double tap" to the target, thus the head shot and the follow up hitting the neck or vice versa.

Family "sounds" like scumballs, but these days I typically give victims of stormtroopers the benefit of the doubt. Remember, if the "victim" is demonized it makes anything the stormtroopers do "justified".......................


DING!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!! DING!!!


ALWAYS I REPEAT ALWAYS BACK UP THE CILVILIAN

WHY??

BECAUSE THE COPS,DA,MEDIA THE CHEIF WILL ALWAYS BACK THEIR OWN.


T


I agree, since every report we read about in the news involving cops is always vetted or fabricated in whole by the cops to start with. You can't believe anything official from LEO, especially the paramilitary SWAT Units.
The only thing we can be sure of is that a little 7 year old girl previously named Aiyana is lying dead on a slab at the morgue. The rest of the story is obviously designed to obfuscate the SWAT teams responsibility over the death of said little girl.

[bonaparte]

The has to be a better way then these stupid swat teams. How were these searches done before there were SWAT teams?

[Mouse]

Before all this militarized bs, they would stake out the perp, find out what he did and where he went, figure out who was in the house, coming and going, and get the perp when he poked his head out, or in violent cases you just surround the place and tell them to come out with hands up. This swat team shit is straight out crazy.

I was thinking about this the other day. I have a chicken house I built recently. I moved the flock out there a few days ago, so now I have a chicken shack with a light burning in it all the time. Somebody could decide this was a meth house or a pot growing operation and decide I need a good searching. They kick the door down, which I would be in a poor position to defend, after they wake me with their flash bangs. You going to get your gun and shoot something you can't hear or see before they are in your room?

And then they can tear my place apart, all weapons seized, cash, metals, anything they can find, they get to tear the place up and take it as evidence. Then they go check out my meth lab and it's a bunch of chickens.

I would probably go to jail too. They can do whatever they want. It's getting pretty bad.

[Twisted Titan]

That is EXACTLY what the hell would happen.

Oh yeah

Your dog would be shot too.


T

[Fanta]

A little update to this story...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37191818/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001


DETROIT - An attorney for the family of a 7-year-old girl slain during a weekend raid at their Detroit home says video footage contradicts the police department's version of events.

Geoffrey Fieger said Monday that footage shot by the A&E crime-reality show "The First 48" shows that police fired into the home at least once after lobbing a flash grenade through a window.

He says that contradicts the police department's explanation that an officer's gun fired during a confrontation with a resident inside the home. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot in the neck and died.

Disgusting..... that poor girl.

[TPTB]

A little update to this story...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37191818/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001


DETROIT - An attorney for the family of a 7-year-old girl slain during a weekend raid at their Detroit home says video footage contradicts the police department's version of events.

Geoffrey Fieger said Monday that footage shot by the A&E crime-reality show "The First 48" shows that police fired into the home at least once after lobbing a flash grenade through a window.

He says that contradicts the police department's explanation that an officer's gun fired during a confrontation with a resident inside the home. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot in the neck and died.

Disgusting..... that poor girl.


Absolutely! The paramilitary methodology of SWAT teams entrenched in Police Forces is disgusting right up front. SWAT should only be used as an absolute last resort if at all, to prevent some psychotic bloodbath, not to create them and especially not for nonviolent drug busts.
This is just the kind of news I used to hear coming from behind the Iron Curtain or various banana Republics during the 60's that caused US citizens to shudder at the brutality.

Disgusting is right!