Saturday, March 05, 2011

Press Conference Calls for Vigorous Prosecution in Aiyana Stanley Jones Death

March 5, 2011

Aiyana’s family, group say more than a warrant due for fatal cop raid

DOUG GUTHRIE AND MIKE WILKINSON
The Detroit News

Detroit— The family of a 7-year-old girl killed by police last spring is outraged that only one person could be charged in the fatally flawed raid, saying the system failed Aiyana Stanley-Jones.

The girl was killed by a bullet from a police weapon while sleeping on a living room sofa early on May 16.

Officers were raiding her east side home in a search for a murder suspect.

Outside, as a camera crew from the A&E cable network show "The First 48" filmed, the Detroit Police Special Response Team broke a front window, tossed in a stun grenade, and Officer Joseph Weekley entered the house. A bullet from his gun killed the girl.

"I want justice for Aiyana — person to person, a trial for the person who did this to her," the girl's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, 48, said at a press conference Friday.

"Against all of them who did this to our family," added her daughter and the girl's aunt, LaKrystal Sanders.

Michigan State Police said Thursday that a 10-month investigation resulted in their request for a warrant against an unnamed male. No other details were revealed.

A decision on whether to charge that person and with what will be made after a review by Wayne County prosecutors. There is no timetable for a decision, according to prosecutor's spokeswoman Maria Miller, who said the report "contains hundreds of pages … and a great deal of evidence."

Mertilla Jones was taken into custody for 12 hours immediately after the incident and accused by police of causing the shooting by wrestling with Weekley over his gun. After her release, police said the shooting was a result of a collision between Weekley and the grandmother, who had been sleeping on the sofa next to the girl.

Lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who represents the family in lawsuits against police and the TV show, has said a video recording shows Weekley fired his gun before entering the front door. Fieger has claimed police almost immediately launched a cover-up.

Friday, Mertilla Jones said she is angry that just one charge may be filed. She said no authorities have called to update the family on the investigation or its result.

She said doesn't eat or sleep since the incident and has lost 50 pounds from what she called a minor stroke.

"People expect us to get over it," she said. "You can't put a time on getting over it. We're all still grieving. I miss her."

The women spoke Friday along with representatives of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality during a news conference at an east side social club. Group leader Ron Scott said two people should be charged — Weekley and the officer who threw the stun grenade — because both represent assaults. Scott said the Police Department has become "militarized."

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan, also attended the conference and said Detroit Police have a "mindset that treats citizens as enemy combatants."

Scott said the coalition intends to seek documents related to the investigation and wants answers to numerous questions, including who planned the raid, who gave the order to throw the grenade and who agreed to let the film crew go along.

"It was a production, a film production," said Sandra Hines, a coalition member. "Their concern wasn't police work; it was how they would look on 'First 48.'"The television show was recording the department's search for Chauncey Owens, a suspect in the murder of Je'Rean Blake Nobles, shot outside a nearby liquor store almost 48 hours earlier. Owens was captured without incident in a simultaneous raid on a separate residence upstairs. LaKrystal Sanders was Owens' girlfriend. He is set for trial in April if he is ruled mentally fit in a competency hearing later this month.

dguthrie@detnews.com
(313) 222-2548


Aiyana Stanley-Jones' family wants Detroit board to investigate police raid practices

Probe into Detroit Police's use of force sought as...: Family members of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, speak out at a news conference regarding the 7-year-old's death where the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality called for an investigation.

BY GINA DAMRON
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERFiled Under

A warrant was requested Thursday in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, which occurred last year in a police raid.

Warrant requested in Aiyana Stanley-Jones' shooting death
Mertilla Jones said she has been ailing, has lost 50 pounds and has trouble concentrating -- not even able to recount words from a book she's just read.

Jones said she is grieving deeply.

It's been nearly 10 months since her 7-year-old granddaughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was fatally shot by a Detroit police officer during a police raid on a home on the city's east side. On Thursday, Michigan State Police submitted a warrant request to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.

Now, Aiyana's family and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality are calling for an investigation by the Detroit Board of Police
Commissioners into police practices in raiding homes.

"Justice for Aiyana," Jones said Friday.

The Rev. Jerome Warfield, chairman of the board of commissioners, said the board was waiting until the conclusion of the state police investigation, but will look into department policies and practices.

Ron Scott, with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said the group wants the police commissioners to investigate use of force practices, particularly the use of flash grenades.

Aiyana was shot by Officer Joseph Weekley, who was a member of the Special Response Team that was called in to help conduct the raid. Police sources previously told the Free Press that Weekley said his gun went off after Jones grabbed it when they went into the home.

Jones has denied that, and attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing Aiyana's family, has said he's seen video showing the fatal shot was fired from the porch.

The warrant request is for a male suspect, according to the prosecutor's office, but police and prosecutors won't comment on who the suspect is or what the investigation revealed.

The prosecutor's office has said it's unclear when the review of hundreds of pages of reports and evidence will be completed and a charging decision will be made.

"It is important that we take the time that is necessary to thoroughly and carefully review the matter," a statement released Friday said.

The target of the raid in May 2010 was Chauncey Owens, a man accused of killing Je'Rean Blake, 17, over a dirty look two days earlier.

Owens was captured in the upper flat of the duplex, but not before police threw a flash grenade through a window into the front room of the lower flat, where Aiyana slept with Jones and the girl was shot. Owens has been charged in Blake's death.

Blake's mother, Lyvonne Cargill, doesn't want her son's killing to be forgotten. On Friday, she said her 2-year-old granddaughter, Blake's daughter, has helped get her through.

"She'll go grab his picture off the table, she'll say, "My daddy, this is my daddy,'" Cargill said.

Jones said she's no longer living in the home on Lillibridge. Aiyana would have turned 9 this July, she said.

The family is "still grieving really hard," Jones said. "It's hard being without her. I miss her."

Staff writers Joe Swickard and Jim Schaefer contributed to this report.

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