DETROIT (AP) — The police chief acknowledged Tuesday that findings from an investigation into the death of a 7-year-old girl who was shot during a police raid “won’t be pretty, but they will be honest.”
Warren Evans, who was hired last summer in part to make sure Detroit’s police change the way they use force, cut short an overseas vacation and returned to the city Tuesday, just as an attorney for the family of Aiyana Stanley-Jones announced two lawsuits claiming officers violated the girl’s rights.
“Although the investigation into the circumstances of Aiyana’s death is now being conducted by the Michigan State Police, the Detroit Police Department has its own painful self-examination to undergo,” Evans said in an e-mail statement.
Aiyana was shot in the neck when police raided her home while searching for a 34-year-old murder suspect.
Her family was represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who demanded that police provide answers.
“You all know what happened at the scene. Please don’t let this child die in vain,” Fieger said in an appeal to members of the department’s Special Response Team, which raided the ramshackle home early Sunday after obtaining a search warrant.
Police have said an officer’s gun accidentally went off inside the house after officers confronted or collided with the girl’s grandmother. But Fieger said a videotape shows the shot was fired from the porch after a flash-bang grenade was lobbed through a window.
Fieger said he viewed three or four minutes of video footage of the raid. He would not say who recorded the events, but a camera crew for the A&E reality series “The First 48″ was filming the raid.
The video shows a group of black-hooded officers approaching the house, the grenade being thrown and the fatal shot, he said.
“We know there’s only one shot. It’s vividly depicted in the videotape … right after the (grenade) throw and the explosion of the bomb. At that point, the officers rush into the home,” said Fieger, who is best known for representing assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Fieger did not retain a copy of the footage.
Dan Silberman, a spokesman for A&E, declined to comment and denied a request by The Associated Press to view the footage.
The lawsuits filed in federal court in Detroit and in Wayne County Circuit Court claim police knew there were children in the home but conducted the raid with guns drawn anyway.
Officers had the family home under surveillance on Saturday, said Fieger, who added that three other children — ages 3 months, 2 years and 4 years — were inside.
“Certainly, they were aware children were living at the home,” Fieger said.
Aiyana’s cousin, Mark Robinson, told reporters Tuesday that he was walking the family’s dogs on the night of the raid when police threw him to the ground.
“I told them, ‘There are children in the house,’” Robinson said.
The federal lawsuit claims police violated Aiyana’s constitutional rights and seeks an unspecified cash award of more than $75,000. A four-count lawsuit filed in county court seeks damages of more than $25,000. Those figures are preliminary, and the actual amounts the family seeks are likely to be much higher.
The homicide suspect, who was wanted in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy outside a convenience store, was arrested in the upstairs unit of the house.
Evans said the department was prepared to hear the worst from the investigation.
“Whatever our findings, they won’t be pretty. There is no way they can be under these circumstances. They won’t be pretty, but they will be honest,” he said.
Police apologized and even offered the services of department chaplains to people in the community.
“I want to say to the entire Jones family, Aiyana’s loved ones and friends, how terribly sorry I am for your loss,” Evans said in his statement. “I have children and grandchildren and cannot comprehend losing one of them, especially under such painful circumstances. I will never be able to put myself in your shoes.”
The department has been under two court-ordered consent decrees since 2003 aimed at, among other things, correcting how and when its officers use force on suspects.
Mayor Dave Bing hired Evans in July after Justice Department officials said the city and police had been lax in meeting terms of the agreements.
Updated 05.18.10 @ 8:49 a.m. – Crime Show Taped Detroit Raid That Led To Girl’s Death
From DetNews.com:
Detroit — An attorney representing the family of a 7-year-old girl shot to death during a Sunday morning raid says the family knows the Detroit police officer who fired the fatal shot is “not a monster” but said the police operation was flawed and influenced by TV production concerns.
The police “were excited; they were on TV,” said Oak Park attorney Karri Mitchell, who is representing the family of Aiyana Jones. “They didn’t have to throw a grenade through the front window when they knew there were children in there.”
The attempted arrest of a murder suspect at a two-unit house on Lillibridge on the city’s east side was videotaped for an episode of “The First 48,” a reality crime show on the Arts & Entertainment Network, said Detroit police spokesman John Roach.
Updated 05.17.10 at 09:51 a.m. – Police Kill 7-Year-Old Girl In Detroit
DETROIT (AP) – A sleeping 7-year-old girl was shot and killed when an officer’s gun went off while Detroit police were searching a duplex for a suspect in the slaying of a teenager, a police official said.\
Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said at a news conference Sunday that Aiyana Jones was hit in the neck by a single bullet and died at a hospital. Police said the girl was sleeping on a couch when she was shot.
“This is any parent’s worst nightmare. It also is any police officer’s worst nightmare,” Godbee said.
Godbee said officers with the department’s Special Response Team set off a flash grenade as they entered the apartment with their guns drawn about 12:40 a.m. Sunday with a warrant to look for a suspect in the Friday slaying of a 17-year-old boy.
The lead officer encountered a 46-year-old woman immediately inside the front room of the house and “some level of physical contact” ensued during which the officer’s gun went off, Godbee said. The officers had identified themselves as police, he said.
Charles Jones, Aiyana’s father, told the Detroit News the woman Godbee referred to was his mother and the child’s grandmother.
“They came into my house with a flash grenade and a bullet,” Jones said. “They say my mother resisted them, that she tried to take an officer’s gun. My mother had never been in handcuffs in her life. They killed my baby, and I want someone to tell the truth.”
Godbee said the shooting was being investigated and all information was preliminary. The officer was put on paid administrative leave, he said. Police do not believe the gun was fired intentionally, he said.
“We cannot undo what occurred this morning,” Godbee said. “All we can do is to pledge an open and full investigation and to support Aiyana’s family in whatever way they may be willing to accept from us at this time.”
Jones said he was trying not to be angry but wanted the story to be told.
“This was a wrongful death,” he said.
The officers had a search warrant and were looking for a 34-year-old man suspected in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jarean Blake.
Blake, a student at Southeastern High School, was gunned down Friday by a liquor store in front of his girlfriend. Blake stumbled across the street, collapsed and died, police said.
Officers arrested the suspect during the search, Godbee said. Jones said the suspect wasn’t in his apartment but one upstairs that officers raided at the same time.
Godbee would not comment on newspaper reports that neighbors told police there were children in the house and showed them toys in the front yard.
“This is a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude to Aiyana’s parents, family and all those who loved her,” Godbee said. “It is a tragedy we also feel very deeply throughout the ranks of the Detroit Police Department.”
The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality called the girl’s death “the pain of pains” in a statement issued Sunday and questioned what protocols police used in the raid. The coalition said it would host a candlelight vigil Sunday evening at the home where she was shot.
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