I was allowed to meet with Charles Jones the following morning at Fiegers office, but with the caveat that I could only ask him questions about the evening his daughter was killed. We noticed you have an ad blocker on. Jones wasgiven a "contingency parole" after completing required prison programs, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz said Monday. But the real mystery behind Officer Huffs murder is why Gibson was out on the street in the first place. DETROITS EAST SIDE is now the poorest, most violent quarter of Americas poorest, most violent big city. He also told me that perhaps 50 percent of Detroits drivers were operating without a license or insurance. / AP. When we look at accountability and an institution that was not designed for black people and that was not designed in the interest of black people, he says, how do you find justice in an already unjust system?. In an echo of deaths at police hands that rocked the US last year, including those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, Officer Weekley is white and Stanley-Jones was black. Dr. Death. On the morning of May 16, a Detroit police officer fatally shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the throat during a police raid on her home. Maybe because the cameras were rolling, maybe because a Detroit police officer had been murdered two weeks earlier while trying to apprehend a suspect. [12] At the time of the incident Aiyana Jones was asleep on the couch in front room of the downstairs apartment. To me, thats like writing about the surf conditions in the Gaza Strip. To avoid the embarrassment of being the nations perpetual murder capital, the police department took to cooking the homicide statistics, reclassifying murders as other crimes or incidents. Aiyana Jones settlement On April 4, Attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced that the City of Detroit had agreed to an $8.2 million settlement in the 2010 slaughter of Aiyana Jones, 7, by another joint task force incuding Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley during a military-style assault on her grandmother Mertilla Jones' home. That factory closed in 1956 and was left to rot, pulling down the East Side, which pulled down the city. 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. I went to see Fieger to ask him to show me the tape. Folks want to blame Aiyana's "crime ridden" neighborhood for her death. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? He was charged twice with involuntary manslaughter, but both cases ended in mistrials. It occurred during a frenzied raid by elite officers who burst through the door to search for a murder. While a thousand people mourned the tragic death of Aiyana, the body of JeRean Blake Nobles sat in a refrigerator at a local funeral parlor; his mother was too poor to bury him herself and too respectful to bury him until after the little girls funeral, anyhow. One witness had him pegged for 13 years old. 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 . So bad is it for Detroits children that Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last year, I lose sleep over that one.. An Arab family owned the store, and one of the menthe one with the pocked face and loud voicewas talking on the telephone, but I remember no sounds. They turned on the lights and saw that she had been shot.. "My sugar is going up from stress. [6][7][8] On October 10, the judge declared a mistrial due to jury deadlock. The madness has to stop, he said. Until there wasnt. I forgive him, but I don't forget what he did.". The victim, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was shot in the head while she slept on a couch in May 2010. They still owe me rent, he said with a face about the Joneses. Testifying at the New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church.Stand at the corner of Lillibridge Street and Mack Avenue and walk a mile in each direction from Alter Road to Gratiot Avenue (pronounced Gra-shit). It was Jameson who finally dragged Huff out of the house and gave him CPR in the driveway, across the street from the Boys & Girls Club. 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. . We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. "He has completed various programming and is active in vocational training. The little girl in the video was based on a true story, according to MTV.com. Weekley will not go to a third trial. Jones, too, later became a person of interest in JeReans murderhe allegedly went along for the ridebut Jones denies it, and hes lawyered up and moved to the suburbs. In fact, there are no chain grocery stores in all of Detroit. The streetlights still go on and off. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. Inside the lower unit of a duplex halfway down the gloomy street, Charles Jones, 25, was pacing, unable to sleep. The day I visited, a Hollywood starlet (PDF) was tailing the doctor, studying for her role as the medical examiner in ABCs new Detroit-based murder drama Detroit 1-8-7. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. Of course I would. Weekley left the courtroom through a private door. Some 45,000 abandoned houses pock Detroit. Owens sped two blocks back to Lillibridge and gathered up a posse, according to his statement to the police. In Detroit, a new car costs more than the average house. 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. WRSX 91.3 Port Huron is off the air due to network issues. You might point to the trade agreements of the Clinton years, which allowed American manufacturers to leave the country by the back door. What? he croaked. An investigation was promised. Outside court, a spokesman for Aiyana's family criticized the judge for her comments. Defense attorney Steve Fishman said prosecutors were courageous by closing the case. Aiyana was severely burned and then shot in the head and neck by an unidentified police officer standing on the porch. A bunch of lazy, uneducated blue-collar incompetents. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a. Three ISO members describe what happened when a neo-Nazi . But Geoffrey Fieger calls it police arrogance. Suddenly, Detroit was historic, symbolichip, even. The case garnered national headlines for all of the obvious reasons: an innocent child caught in police crosshairs, another black life taken in a city filled with heartache. I have . I get no sleep. Home. Would you take a job at that Chrysler plant if there were any jobs there? I asked one of the men, who was sweating under the weight of the cast iron. Young Municipal Center in Detroit. Aiyana Stanley-Jones was sleeping in her home on the east side of Detroit on the night of May 16, 2010, when officers barged into the house. Were taking whats left.. Jones was arrested, and though she was quickly released it was not before she and two other family members Aiyanas parents had been forced to sit in their childs blood for hours, Scott said. 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.". So what? Fieger barked. As a reporter at the Detroit News, I get plenty of phone calls from people in the neighborhoods. [42] While Sanders was on the stand, Judge Cynthia Hathaway told her that she (Sanders) was being "disrespectful. They were conducting a police raid in search of a. That year, the police said there were 306 homicidesuntil I began digging. Forget about it. And he wouldnt even help her. 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. Her parents say they hope Aiyana will be remembered as more than a symbol of heightened tension in a city in crisis. [48] On January 28, 2015, county prosecutor Kym Worthy dismissed the last remaining charge against Weekley, the misdemeanor of 'careless discharge of a firearm causing death'. Evans brought a refreshing honesty to a department plagued by ineptitude and secrecy. Like so many across the country, shes being evicted with no job and no place to go. And Ive got to say in all my years in the department, Ive never used a flash-bang in a case like this.. There are lawyers and doctors and auto executives with nice homes and good jobs, community elders trying to make things better, teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies, people who mow lawns out of respect for the dead, parents who raise their children, ministers who help with funeral expenses. Outside, Television was watching them. 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. In this shit, a one-year-old played next door, barefoot. As it turns out, he was filming a pilot for his own reality show, entitled The Chief. Its police disinformation.. The police were searching for a murder suspect thought to be in the Jones home. 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. Once at Aiyanas graveside, Charles Jones released a dove. "They said he'll be on parole until 2030, and he or his family can't be around my family. Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley, and paternal grandmother Mertilla testified, and both had "emotional outbursts." [39][40], On the second day of trial, September 24, LaKrystal Sanders, who lived on the upper floor of the house where Aiyana was killed, testified. The raid took place at about 12:30 a.m. Ive seen him in the faces of soldiers when I was covering the Iraq War. If youre a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.. It's now Monday at 10:30pm. 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. Owens got there first and shot JeRean clear through the chest with Lil James gun. Evans drivera copgave chase. Aiyana Jones, Up Closed, https://upclosed.com/people/aiyana-monay-stanley-jones/; Aiyana Jones, Mother Jones, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/aiyana-stanley-jones-detroit/; Aiyana Jones, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/aiyana-stanley-jones-joseph-weekley-trial_n_5824684.html; CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aiyana-stanley-jones-case-final-charge-dropped-against-detroit-cop-in-fatal-raid/. [5] Then they said he jumped out a back window. The trial of a Detroit police officer who fatally shot a seven-year-old girl began today.Officer Joseph Weekley shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones during . Jones broke down during testimony and had to be escorted out amid sobbing after addressing Weekley who was also in the courtroom directly. [9][10] The landlord of the duplex, Edward Taylor, let me into the Jones apartment. 42,200. [2], After a one-year internal and federal investigation, on October 4, 2011, a grand jury indicted Weekley on involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. We hope this resolution will provide everyone involved a measure of closure," Detroit Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia said in a statement, according to the Detroit News. 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. Joneswas retried in 2019 for manslaughter and for being a habitual offender, and was sentenced to 10-20 years, with2,841 days credit for time served. This has helped reinforce a culture shift within police departments. From all indications it appears that police operation were flawed and heavily influenced by camera crews who were filming the raid for A&E's crime show "The First 48," according to a published report. He won't be in the field. Then Huff got killed. The frightened black man attempted to save himself. Have him call me, and then hung up the phone. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Owens was convicted of first-degree murderand sentenced to life in prison. I saw him in the face of my sister, who died a violent death in a filthy section of Detroit a decade ago. The slap caused the gun to fire with the bullets striking young Aiyana in the head and killing her instantly. I stared through the windshield at the little boy in the diaper playing amid the ruins, reached over, and switched it off. The Kilpatrick scandal, combined with the murder rate, spurred the newly elected mayor, Dave Bingan NBA Hall of Famerto fire Police Chief James Barrens last year and replace him with Warren Evans, the Wayne County sheriff. People call it police brutality. But Officer Joseph Weekley accidentally shot Aiyana in the head, killing her. 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