I left McNeals porch and started my car. There are two elementary schools in the area, both in desperate need of a lawnmower and a can of paint. 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. Its too late.. So Dr. Schmidt keeps them on layaway, zipped up in body bags as family members wait for a ship to come in that never seems to arrive. Officers deployeda "flash bang" grenadeand kicked in the front door, and raid team leader Joseph Weekley led the crewinto the house. Lyvonne Cargill wears a shirt that honors her son, JeRean Blake Nobles. WHat actually happened to this little girl? She denied grabbing the weapon. Sanders was Aiyana Jones's paternal aunt, the girlfriend of Chauncey Owens, and the daughter of Mertilla Jones. 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 gives details of the way streets look like at night, and gives a captivating detail of girl's father suffering from insomnia. "She's not a scapegoat. Parts of the Detroit River are now clean enough for swimming. Cargill said because of COVID-19 restrictions, she was unable to attend Jones' parole hearings to contest his release. School wasnt a priority. [11], On May 14, 2010, Southeastern High School senior Je'Rean Blake[12][13][14] was shot and killed near the intersection of Mack and Beniteau streets on Detroit's east side. Somebody should have told company executives back in New York that they had wildly overpaid. Weekley doesnt have to pay but the family that lost a child has to pay, said Ron Scott, a spokesman for the family, shortly after attending the dismissal hearing. What the hell you doing up here for? Chauncey Owens, the uncle wanted on murder charges, was said to be going in and out of the house as normal and could have been apprehended during the day. A slender, pimply faced kid, JeRean was not an intimidating figure. Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley stands in judge Cynthia Hathaways courtroom in Detroit, in June 2013. They still owe me rent, he said with a face about the Joneses. The city of Detroit has settled a lawsuit with the family of a girl shot and killed by a Detroit police officer nine years ago. But I felt unraveling this one death could help diagnose what has gone wrong in this city, so I decided to retrace the events leading up to that pitiable moment on the porch on Lillibridge Street. A good kid with average grades, JeRean went to Southeastern High, which is situated in an industrial belt of moldering Chrysler assembly plants. Except there aint no job. Not all of us are blessed.. McNeal wondered how she was going to pay the $3,000 for her sons funeral. Subscribe today and get a full year of Mother Jones for just $14.95. They were looking for a murder suspect. Then, realizing that sounded implausible, they said shed brushed the gun as she ran past the door. Weekley will not go to a third trial. Aiyana was buried in a white casket which was driven to her grave site by a horse-drawn carriage. Thats good news until you realize that in Detroit, some 500 fires are set every single month. Wage growth is slowing. 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. The police were . It is the home of mass-production, of very high wages and colossal profits, of lavish spending and reckless instalment-buying, of intense work and a large and shifting labour-surplus, British historian and MP Ramsay Muir wrote in 1927. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Jones had just gone to bed after covering his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana with her favorite blanket. Aiyana was sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother when, just after midnight, Officer Weekley's SWAT team threw a flashbang grenade through the living room window, setting fire to . Seconds after entering the house, where the grenade had caused Aiyanas blanket to catch fire, Weekley fired one fatal shot. Folks want to blame Aiyana's "crime ridden" neighborhood for her death. 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. Owens didn't like the way the Southeastern High School teen had looked at him, according to court testimony. The First 48 photographer Allison Howard was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. No weapons were found on ANY person in the house after the raid, including Charles Jones and Aiyana's mother Dominika, Aiyana and her two toddler brothers, Mertilla Jones and her sister, and two adult cousins of Charles. The civil rights lawsuit, which alleges officers attempted to cover-up how Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed, names Officer Joseph Weekley, Robert Rowe, the Detroit Police Department, and the city as defendants. Six individuals, who chained themselves to a Detroit Police Department precinct, were arrested Wednesday evening during a rally honoring Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year old who was shot and. Devils Night is no longer the big deal it used to be, topping out last year at around 65 arsons. Then there is the thought that Detroit is simply a boomtown that went bust the minute Henry Ford began to build it. Thats a hell of a pair of bookends, I offered. It was a white cop who killed the girl, but Detroit is Americas largest black city with a black mayor and a black chief of police. [36] Aiyana's case would be the longest presiding case that Hathaway had in more than 20 years of being on the bench. 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. JeRean balled up his tiny fist. For Aiyana, it's the irony of the portrait circulating the Web: The smiling 7-year-old in her freshest plaits and multicolored barrettes, literally surrounded by a trifecta of white Disney princesses-blonde Cinderella, brunette Snow White and redhead Ariel, the Little Mermaid. [49], Aiyana Jones' funeral was held in the Second Ebenezer Church on May 22, 2010 in Detroit. 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. In October, judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter, citing a lack of evidence. Families of people killed by police officers and activists gathered at the feet of the Spirit of Detroit statue in front of the Coleman A. About 40 kids were milling around in front of the soft-serve window. Instead of being protected, communities are treated like the enemy, the report found with a disproportionate effect on communities of color. The service was held at Second Ebenezer Church in Detroit, a drab cake-shaped megachurch near the Chrysler Freeway. Two trials against Officer Joseph Weekley ended without verdicts on a charge of reckless use of a gun. [32][33] Allison Howard was sentenced to two years of probation in July 2013, and fined $2,000. What the fuck do you think? he said. To me, thats like writing about the surf conditions in the Gaza Strip. The city filled with people from all over the world: Arabs, Appalachians, Poles, African Americans, all in their separate neighborhoods surrounding the factories. I think its one of the lowest things I have ever seen.. Cargill said her two surviving children, a 30-year-old daughter and son, 22, took the news of Jones' pending release hard. [65][unreliable source?] January 7, 2022 . What killed Aiyana is what killed the people in New Orleans and the rider on the transit in Oakland, and thats police bullets and police arrogance and police cover-up, Jones lawyer said. Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. He looked at Chauncey Owens the wrong way, detectives say. At the time Owens was the boyfriend of Joness aunt LaKrystal Sanders, who was also living at the house. Desperation, she said, feels like someones reaching down your throat and ripping out your guts. Jones and two other men known as Lil James and Dirt rode along for JeReans ass-whipping. The programs six-minute sizzle reel begins with Evans dressed in full battle gear in front of the shattered Michigan Central Rail Depot, cradling a semiautomatic rifle and declaring that he would do whatever it takes to take back the streets of Detroit. Funeral for Chaise Sherrors, JeReans best friend. 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. ME Schmidt ruled it a homicide; the police decided it was a suicide. And TV may have needed some pyrotechnics. 42,200. A half-dozen masked officers of the Special Response TeamDetroits version of SWATwere at the door, guns drawn. A member of JROTC, he was on his way to the military recruitment office after senior prom and commencement. An 11th-grade dropout and convicted robber, he said he supported his seven children with a little this, a little thatI got a few tricks and trades.. He was shot in the head and killed last year. This was the first raid on a house since his death. When I called the head of the homicide bureau and explained the situation, he told me, Oh yeah? The Rev. [12] At the time of the incident Aiyana Jones was asleep on the couch in front room of the downstairs apartment. In 2010 Aiyana MoNay Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old African American girl, was accidentally shot and killedduring a raid that was conducted by the Detroit,Michigan Police Departments Special Response Team. His retrial began in September 2014. As far-fetched as what happened to the Joneses may sound, they are not . Like so many across the country, shes being evicted with no job and no place to go. Coco Jones has lived many lives. Inexpensive, too! [9][10] Hes from New York. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? He might have smirked. I stared through the windshield at the little boy in the diaper playing amid the ruins, reached over, and switched it off. They want to blame her parents and her aunt who is engaged to the murder suspect. What? he croaked. She looked at her barefoot grandson playing in the wreckage of the dwelling next door and wondered if he would make it to manhood. Killing of Aiyana Jones. The family of Aiyana Jones, the 7-year-old girl accidentally killed by a Detroit police officer during a raid in 2010, has reached settlement with the city o. Weekley claimed Aiyana Jones' paternal grandmother, Mertilla Jones, attempted to slap his MP5 submachine gun, causing it to fire. Danny Wilcox Frazier is a contributing photographer for Mother Jones. Short answer: Yesand no. Weekley stated, "A woman inside grabbed my gun. 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. People are drinking. As Detroit led the nation in median income and homeownership, automation and foreign competition were forcing companies like Packard to shutter their doors. [CLICK HERE FOR CHARLIE LEDUFFS EXPOSE ON THE DETROIT AMBULANCE SYSTEM. [CHECK OUT A SLIDESHOW OF ABANDONED HOUSES ON ONE BLOCK IN DETROIT]I keep calling about these falling-down houses, but the city never comes, she said. Rayshard Brooks was a 27-year-old African American restaurant worker who lived in Atlanta. You can blame it on the John Deere mechanical cotton-picker of 1950, which uprooted the sharecropper and sent him north looking for a livingwhere he found he was locked out of the factories by the unions. 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