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. The family of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, who was murdered by Detroit police more than two years ago, is still waiting for justice. "It's irking me so bad," Cargill said. What happened after that is a matter of conjecture, as Detroit officials have had problems getting their stories straight. First published on January 30, 2015 / 4:13 PM. 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. In 2007, he attacked a cop and tried to take his gun. [12] Weekley had been featured on another A&E police reality show, Detroit SWAT. But the people of Lillibridge Street still look like theyve been picked up by their hair and dropped from the rooftop. She got pregnant at 15. The police were searching for a murder suspect thought to be in the Jones home. The raid took place at about 12:30 a.m. "[21][22], Mertilla Jones said she reached for her granddaughter when the grenade came through the window, not for the officer's gun, because the flash grenade had set the child on fire. A member of JROTC, he was on his way to the military recruitment office after senior prom and commencement. But defense attorney Steve Fishman says Jones has no credibility because she's told different stories about what happened. Oddly enough, that's what supposedly happened to a beautiful 7-year-old girl named Aiyana Jones. [9][10] Over the next 50 years, Detroits East Side would become the worlds machine shop, its factory floor. The gimmick was to have its reporters live there and chronicle the decline of the Motor City for one year. Henry Ford built his first automobile assembly-line plant in Highland Park in 1908 on the east side of Woodward Avenue, the thoroughfare that divides the east of Detroit from the west. Two trials against Officer Joseph Weekley ended without verdicts on a charge of reckless use of a gun. [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". 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. There was no note. "My sugar is going up from stress. The family is seeking $7.5 million in damages and a jury trial conceded by the court filing. It would also help inspire the creation of the Black Lives Matter Movementthree years later. "This was an assassination by video," said Roland Lawrence as he and others watched a small plane . The graduation rate for Detroit schoolkids hovers around 35 percent (PDF). Jones, 25, a slight man with frizzy braids, wore a dingy T-shirt. The official version was that two men were walking in the middle of a street on the East Side when Evans and his driver told them to walk on the sidewalk. 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. Bagpipes played and the rain fell. Weekley will not go to a third trial. Nevertheless, Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans issued a statement May 18. To me, thats like writing about the surf conditions in the Gaza Strip. Today75 years after the beavers disappeared from the Detroit RiverDetroitism means something completely different. JeReans crime? Then JeRean was murdered. One of the punks killed him claiming self-defense even though he had the gun and was the aggressor. Parts of the Detroit River are now clean enough for swimming. The red halo around his skull gave the scene a feeling of serenity. You might blame postwar industrial policies that sent the factories to the suburbs, the rural South, and the western deserts. They were looking for a murder suspect. Soon, the air was the color of a filthy dishrag. Weekley shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones as she slept on a couch in a Detroit home in 2010. It was a sweatbox, and I went across the street to the liquor store for a soda pop. She's irresponsible," said Ron Scott, referring to Hathaway's decision to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge before a jury at the second trial could consider it. Louis Miriani, the last Republican mayor of Detroit, who served from 1957 to 1962, was sent to federal prison for tax evasion when he couldnt explain how he made nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a reported salary of only $25,000. Grandmother Mertilla Jones said, "Accountability needs to be expected from cases like this, because cops can't keep killing people and getting away with it. The man stopped, turned, and pulled a gun. In Chief 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. Behind him stood two rookies. It was 2:40 in the afternoon on May 14 when JeRean went to the Motor City liquor store and ice-cream stand to get himself an orange juice to wash down his McDonalds. 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. I can accept the shooting was a mistake, Jones said about his daughters death as a bleary-eyed Stanley sat motionless next to him. I dont want no apology from no police. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy, though his heart did not seem to be in it. McNeal wondered how she was going to pay the $3,000 for her sons funeral. In Detroit, the official response time of an ambulance to a 911 call is 12 minutes. He came here for publicity. He had been married eight years and had three daughters and a stepson. But when you call for help, it seems like no ones there. Outside, a reality television crew filmed the events for A&E. But even he couldnt stanch the tsunami of red ink; the deficit ballooned more than $140 million under his guidance. Detroit has since made little progress on the federal consent decree. Technicians are currently working on the problem. Cole's character, it turns out, is a drug dealer. 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. Owens sped two blocks back to Lillibridge and gathered up a posse, according to his statement to the police. I need help. Weekley was transferred from the Special Response Team to the Criminal Investigations Bureau. As our Detroit reporter, she is helping us expand our coverage of the economy, politics, and culture in and around the city of Detroit. Im alive. In an attempt to distract the occupants, police fired a flash grenade through the front window of the lower apartment, where Aiyana Jones was sleeping. First, it was six cops who responded to the 911 call. 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 . Officials said Gibson ran out the front of the house. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. A thousand people attended, as did the predictable plump of media. They were wondering if the Rust Belt cancer had metastasized and was creeping to Los Angeles and London and Barcelona. Owens got there first and shot JeRean clear through the chest with Lil James gun. Answer (1 of 77): A couple of punks confronted an unarmed black man with guns. The mortician charged $700 for the most basic viewing casket, even though the body was to be cremated. He got paid exactly what he was supposed to be paid.. The psychopathology of growing up in Detroit, he said. Its easy in our anger, our rage, to just vent and scream. The environment got nothing to do with kids.. Huff and his partner were not actually called to the scene; theyd taken it upon themselves to assist the younger cops, according to the police version of events. 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. Still, as the American middle class collapses, its worth perhaps remembering that the East Side of Detroitthe place where Aiyana, JeRean, and Officer Huff all diedwas once its industrial cradle. "(Jones') parole guideline score placed him in the high probability of parole range," Gautz said in an email. [50][bettersourceneeded] The casket was white and was afterwards driven to the grave by horse-drawn carriage. 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. She arrived too late. They went hog wild. People call it police brutality. 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. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. 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. But McNeal messed upshe admits as much. By the end of the following day, police had identified Chauncey Owens as a suspect in Blake's death and obtained a warrant to search 4054 Lillibridge[12] St, where Owens was believed to be hiding. All Rights Reserved. And there are. Detroit grew restless. But the fact is Detroit and its suburbs were dying 40 years ago. The title is derived from the California penal code for murder: 187. January 7, 2022 . [25], Chauncey Owens, the suspect who the raid was intended to apprehend and boyfriend of Aiyana's aunt LaKrystal Sanders,[26] was found in the upper-floor apartment of the duplex and surrendered without incident. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. The conceit of the show is that homicide detectives have 48 hours to crack a murder case before the trail goes cold. Soon, the Motor Citys population surpassed that of Boston and Baltimore, old East Coast port cities founded on maritime shipping when the world moved by boat. The mayors office is said to have a copy, as well as the Michigan State Police, who are now handling the investigation. [2], After the shot was fired, Weekley reported to his sergeant that a woman inside had grabbed for his gun. His body was transferred to Dr. Schmidt and the Wayne County morgue. [6][7][8] Sheffield came to see Cargill. ", The mother of Jones' victim, Lyvonne Cargill, said: "I'm stressed thinking about that man coming home." Then eight, then eleven. This was the first raid on a house since his death. We believe today's settlement is fair because it balances the needs of Aiyana's family and our responsibility for the city's finances. Detroit VA hospital harmed patients, altered records, investigation reveals, $8.5 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. 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.". Listen on Apple Podcasts. . He admitted in his first trial that, "It's my gun that shot and killed a 7-year-old girl. If such a thing could be true, Chaises neighborhood is worse than JeReans. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. Both sons now sit in urns on her mantel.Chaise lived on the other side of the Chrysler complex. "It bothers them," she said. Editors note: On October 4, 2011, following a yearlong investigation by the Michigan state police, Officer Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm. A seven-year-old Black girl was fatally during a raid in Detroit, Michigan Police Department in 2010. Juries twice failed to reach a verdict in Weekleys case, first in June 2013 and then in October 2014. [52], A civil rights lawsuit questioned Weekley's account of the incident, claiming the grenade had gone through the window and struck Aiyana. 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. On Thursday, a settlement was made in the lawsuit that amounted to $8.25 being paid out. Lyvonne Cargill wears a shirt that honors her son, JeRean Blake Nobles. They drove her there every morning, five miles. ME Schmidt ruled it a homicide; the police decided it was a suicide. "[27] His trial was scheduled for October[28] and finally took place in June 2013 but resulted in a deadlocked jury. As for the videotape of the killing, Geoffrey Fieger said he did not have it. The Jones family contends that the shot that killed Aiyana was fired from outside the house, and that the police eventually caught the homicide suspect, Chauncey L. Owens, at a different address . The flower shop is just a pile of bricks now, but despite what the Arab told me, I did not forget what I saw. The Detroit Free Press has more details here. "I want to say to the entire Jones family, Aiyana's loved ones and friends, how terribly sorry I am for your loss. Other auto plants sprang up on the East Side: Packard, Studebaker, Chryslers Dodge Main. He might have smirked. Robert Bobb was hired in 2009 as the emergency financial manager and given sweeping powers to balance the books. Casei Jones, 32, and her four children Cameron Bowers, 10, Preston Bowers, 5, Mercalli Jones, 2, and Aiyana Jones, 1, were missing for almost a month. School wasnt a priority. 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