The jury had deadlocked in the trial of Officer Joseph Weekley who is accused of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, who was shot in the head during a raid on her home. The producer for the reality show “The First 48 Hours” is also charged in the case.
Weekley, 37, was part of a raid by the Detroit Police Department’s Special Response Team, which was executing a search warrant for a murder suspect on May 16, 2010. Notably, the police invited a television crew to come along and film their raid. The presence of these crews often seems to encourage the display of force in police operations — in some cases resulting in a virtual movie set for an invasion film. In the “First 48 Hours,” you often see police officers turned into little more than cast members in maintaining the narrative and theme of the show.
In this case, the crew shows a flash-bang device exploding and about 3 seconds later a gunshot can be heard on the video played for jurors during the trial. It is not clear if the police knew, before hitting the home with a flash grenade, that there was a small child in the home. Aiyana was sleeping in the front room when police entered and shot her.
Weekley says that her grandmother touched Weekley’s gun, a claim that the grandmother says is a lie. Weekley testified that he unintentionally pulled the trigger of his gun after another person hit his weapon.
Notably, the jury could not even render a verdict on the lesser charge of careless discharge of a firearm causing death, a misdemeanor.
To make this case even more complicated, a videographer for the “The First 48,” Allison Howard, is charged with perjury and withholding video crucial to the investigation. Prosecutors allege that Howard knowingly made false statements under oath by testifying “that she did not show third parties video recordings that showed the subject of the investigation and/or that she did not provide third parties with copies of said video recordings.”
The case is being prosecuted by the office of the controversial Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy .
To those of you trying to somehow blame the grandmother, I want you to know that A. the subject WASN’T in the house at the time of the raid and B. we are talking about TRAINED professionals!! why are they trained? so that things like this DON’T occur!! oh and C. DURING the trial the officer changed his story about how his gun went off several times!! Bottom line a 7 YEAR OLD CHILD is dead!! and she died by this officers doing! point blank period!! and NO ONE can deny that! so get your head out of your fascist asses and look at the facts!! If an average person can go to jail for having over an ounce of weed on them… You cant tell me this officer should be set free for killing an innocent child! even if it was by mistake!, because he is TRAINED to know when to react to a threatening situation, which this one wasnt! maybe not life in jail if it was truly an accident but SOME form of time must be served if our justice system is to reflect TRUE justice!
When the case first hit the news the story was that this cop went to the wrong door of a two dwelling house. The suspect did not live there and was not in the dwelling this cop entered. No one was harboring a fugitive.
A second cop went to the proper dwelling and arrested the suspect without incident.
The flash bang bomb landed on the girl and her grandmother sleeping on a couch setting the girl’s hair on fire, the cop charged in and shot the first person he saw, which was the little girl.
Stupidity of that level deserves severe punishment. Not knowing any better is only a defense if the perpetrator is mentally ill , senile, or a child.
Eventually the pendelum will swing back and the deaths of Darius Simmons, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and others will not be tolerated so well.
There is no way to change posting order.
The comments are likely a function of the time when they are received by the server and posted to the thread. If someone had posted a comment before you hit the button for [Post Comment] then that comment will get posted first.
Mary,
I don’t believe comments can be moved. If you will notice, if a comment is addressed to another commenter, one starts it off as I started this one addressed to you. If it is to a specific comment, then put the time stamp in too, like this:
“Mary, replying to your comment at 6:46PM,”
And so forth. There may be a way to move comments in WordPress, but I have no idea how to do it. Just getting them to post properly without getting caught in the spam filter has gotten to be a big deal.
The outcome shows how BARBARIC law enforcement is in this de facto police state. If they can shoot ‘Shirley Temple’ DEAD, how many adults have been illegitimately shot in past raids? Even the real suspect needs a day in court he doesn’t try to shoot his way out, but the ‘collateral damage’ of this type of raid is way too high! WAY TOO HIGH! Go for the death penalty.
Joseph Weekley admitted to killing/murdering/assassinating/causing the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones when he shot her in the head while she slept on a couch.
“So absent any major piece of evidence clearly establishing the cops culpability for reckless conduct…” Isn’t a dead 7 year old child a major piece of evidence?
riccardo, NO it is NOT evidence any more than dead innocent civilians who are shot by cops in a shootout with crooks. The cops are NOT guilty of any crime in such situations. Nor is the cop guilty if the grandmother bumped into him, fought with him, or any other factor that caused his weapon to fire. In FACT even the DA did not charge the cop with murder, assassination, or even charge him with manslaughter. The worst charge is involuntary manslaughter and the jury could not even agree on the misdemeanor charge of careless discharge of a firearm. So all your hysterical charges are nothing but bogus ones. The jury did hear the evidence and the next one may well wind up the same way or acquit too.
Lotta,
That is a good point about the timing issue. If the 3 seconds is accurate, how could the grandmother get to the door after such a short period of time after a stun grenade went off?!
“Notably, the police invited a television crew to come along and film their raid. The presence of these crews often seems to encourage the display of force in police operations — in some cases resulting in a virtual movie set for an invasion film.”
Which makes me wonder why more suits against LE “reality shows” don’t get filed in general.
I agree there is not enough information here for me to rush to a judgement.
“He admitted he shot and killed her,” said Mertilla Jones. “He a dirty cop because he said I touched him. I never touched that man. … I was never anywhere near Joseph Weekley. He’s a lying [expletive] cop.”
(http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/22623804/hung-jury-leads-to-mistrial-in-joseph-weekly-trial)
The videographer’s perjury trial is set for June 24th
I’m going to follow this…. Kim is about as worthless as …. … think Kwame Kilpatrick…. And enough is said…
ARE, you’re making some assumptions that I have not seen reflected in any of the news stories:
“The grandmother is more at fault than the cops for harboring a wanted murder suspect.” and
“Was the murder suspect actually in the home and was that suspect a relative of the grandmother? If that is true, then I would give more credibility to the cop than the grandmother. It is obvious that the cop did not intend to shoot the child, but when one is harboring a violent suspect, the grandmother knowingly took the risk of such an armed confrontation.”
I recall reading that the suspect may have been a relative and lived in an upstairs room but that in no way translates to that he told her of his crime IF he even committed a crime.
“In any case, the grandmother did something intentionally or unintentionally to cause the cops weapon to fire.”
That too is an assumption based on who you choose to trust to tell the truth, not any verified fact.
If the grenade was tossed in and 3 seconds later the cop fired what is also possible is that the child was startled awake, started to jump up, the cop saw the movement and fired before verifying the target.
Lotta, I quite agree that there is hardly enough evidence to make any kind of an informed opinion on the jury’s finding. The FACT is that they DID hear all the evidence, and could not agree that the state had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. What I was trying to do is to posit various scenarios that would mitigate in favor of the cop in my later posts.
So absent any major piece of evidence clearly establishing the cops culpability for reckless conduct, if I were the DA, I would not bother with a retrial and look for a misdemeanor plea bargin. I think that any new trial will more than likely come up with the same result or possibly even a not guilty verdict since the state has a steep hill to climb to get a conviction. I think a misdemeanor will serve justice given the limited facts at hand. Given more facts, an acquital may well be serving justice better.
“If the grenade was tossed in and 3 seconds later the cop fired what is also possible is that the child was startled awake, started to jump up, the cop saw the movement and fired before verifying the target.”
LK,
That is a very reasonable explanation.
The evidence presented in this piece is too sketchy to really make any judgment. However, life is not a “reality show” and “reality shows” are not real life. I can’t assess blame against either the office or the grandmother based on what I see here. Yet I can assess blame on the higher up police official who let cameras follow officers on a raid to capture a potentially dangerous criminal. There is nothing good that can happen from such an exercise and when you are being filmed in the course of carrying out your duties the natural human tendency is to play to the camera.
Something smells here. I am shocked that there was no video footage of the incident in light of the A&E cameras on the scene. This is an example why reality TV and police work do not make good bedfellows. Was the murder suspect that they were searching for at the home found during the raid?
Why wasn’t there massive television coverage immediately after this occurred? I think we know why. — Turley, this is the most enraging subject you’ve brought forward in the time I’ve followed you. Not only because this innocent child was shot in the head in front of her Grandma as she slept in her own home, but also because it wasn’t widely reported. — Look at those dimples, that pretty hair and that pose!!! That cop, Weekley shot Shirley Temple!!!…..and the press looked away.
Mary, even the prosecutor does not think she was shot intentionally. So your concern makes it sound as though the cop shot her intentionally. The grandmother is more at fault than the cops for harboring a wanted murder suspect. If you are running a crack house, and the cops raid it, the owner is responsible for collateral damage. The same thing applies when a crook engages in a shoot out with the cops. If innocent bystanders are shot, it is the CROOK, NOT the cops who are charged with those injuries or deaths.
After having thought about the amount of time between the flash bang and the shot, which was reported at 3 seconds, it appears that the cop did not shoot immediately on entering. My guess is that the grandmother probably bumped into the cop while he was in the room, and that is what caused him to discharge his weapon. So it is hard to say that the cop is guilty of anything. We can either take the grandmothers word that she did nothing at all, or we can take the cops word. It is more than likely the cop is either telling the truth or at worst has embellished the grandmothers actions. In any case, the grandmother did something intentionally or unintentionally to cause the cops weapon to fire. Thus there has to be some major bit of evidence to secure a conviction in this case since the cop is presumed innocent. So far, absent other evidence, I would have a hard time convicting the cop.
Now a civil suit is another matter, and my guess is that Detroit is on the hook for some big bucks on this front.
Points well taken, but a sleeping child was shot dead in her home, and however unintentional, the recipe-for-disaster combination of a poorly planned police raid and an action dependent reality news show was a far more likely cause of the tragic outcome than the protective behavior of the Grandmother, who reacted as ANY Grandmother predictably would.— In any event, such violent tactics should never be taken if there’s any possibility a child could be present.
Officer Weekley will undoubtedly suffer from the horrific memory of what he’s done for the rest of his life, but those who ordered him into the situation and the reality producers who heightened the frenzy should be held the most accountable. Nothing can hurt this precious child now, but the pain her family’s in is something no one deserves to know the depth of.
If the media would equally report similar deaths as soon as they occur, those in charge of these raids would not be so reckless in their planning.
My latest post was meant to appear beneath randyjet’s comment as a reply to him. If not a problem could you move it just under his? Thank you, Mary Halverson Wagner
It is hard to make any judgement since a lot of relevant facts are missing. Was the murder suspect actually in the home and was that suspect a relative of the grandmother? If that is true, then I would give more credibility to the cop than the grandmother. It is obvious that the cop did not intend to shoot the child, but when one is harboring a violent suspect, the grandmother knowingly took the risk of such an armed confrontation. The cops have to assume that a murder suspect is armed and dangerous. So the blame has to rest primarily with the grandmother, and a little with the cops. Now if they were after a shoplifter, I would find the cops guilty of overreaction and more culpable in the childs death.
Given the heavy presumption of mitigating circumstances given to police, it is incumbent on the justice system to be scrupulous in presenting a case.
Too often we see manipulation, dubious statements by senior officials and obfuscation.
Read this column with a (all too common) sense that justice is being served poorly.
A police raid is tense enough w/o the added drama of “reality” tv. My kids loved the first reality tv shows. I told them my surveillance videos were reality, because the person didn’t know they were on tape. And, I could pick up when the subject was hinky because they acted differently and then there’s the eye! If the eyes focused on my van, the reality show was over. It was serendipitous how these horseshit shows began because of a writer’s strike. I’m hoping serendipity or something ends them. I have no idea if this sweet girl was killed because of the tv cameras amping up the volume. But, my gut says it was a factor. And, I will make no judgments on the verdict, since I heard no evidence.