Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cop flashbangs then shoots 7 year old: Trial begins

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/aiyana-stanleyjones-trial_n_3379638.html?ir=Detroit

Aiyana Stanley-Jones Trial Begins, Prosecutor Argues Cop Error Caused Detroit Girl's Death.

DETROIT � Armed with a shield and a submachine gun, a highly trained Detroit police officer made critical errors during a house raid that led to the fatal shooting of a sleeping 7-year-old girl, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

There is no argument that an unintentional shot from Joseph Weekley's gun killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones on May 16, 2010, as police stormed the home in search of a murder suspect. But the officer is on trial for involuntary manslaughter because authorities believe he was extremely negligent in failing to control his weapon.

Police, accompanied by a crew from the reality TV show, "The First 48," fired a stun grenade into the home to cause confusion. Weekley, a member of the elite Special Response Team, was the first officer through the door � "the tip of the spear" � assistant prosecutor Rob Moran said in his opening statement to the jury.

"The flash grenade goes off: Boom!" Moran said. "He stands there. This is called the fatal funnel. You never stand in a doorway. Three seconds after the flash grenade detonates, his gun goes off and that's when the fatal shot is fired."

Aiyana was sleeping on the couch. Police have said Weekley was jostled by, or collided with, Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, causing the gun to fire. Prosecutors disagree.

"No one grabbed his gun. ... There was no struggle," Moran said.

But Weekley's attorney countered that this was what happened. In his remarks to jurors, Steve Fishman said Jones grabbed the gun after the grenade went off.

"He pulls back and his hand hits the trigger. ... It was an accident. It was not careless. It was not reckless," the defense lawyer said.

He said Aiyana's death was a "tragedy of the highest order," but not a crime.




Fishman said Weekley was "completely despondent" and vomited when he learned the shot had killed the girl.

The jury will be shown video of the raid recorded by "The First 48," an A&E Networks show that focuses on the early stages of homicide investigations. Jurors also will be taken away from the courthouse to see a demonstration of a stun grenade, which is loud, gives off a bright light and temporarily affects the hearing of people nearby.

Only three witnesses testified on the first day and none offered much about the circumstances behind the shooting. Aiyana's mother, Dominika Stanley, had trouble controlling tears as she spoke to jurors. A "Hannah Montana" blanket used by her daughter that night was just a few feet away.

Stanley said police first ordered her to sit on the bloody couch where her daughter was shot and then drove her to a hospital. Doctors there delivered the bad news.

"My baby didn't make it," she said.

Fishman signaled that the credibility of Jones, the grandmother, would be a key issue at trial. He told jurors that she has given three different versions of what happened that night, including a claim that Weekley intentionally killed Aiyana.

Wayne County Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway has barred the jury from taking notes, despite a 2011 order from the Michigan Supreme Court encouraging all trial judges to allow the practice. Hathaway didn't explain her decision.

Jail time around the corner for this guy

Should be easy enough if it was on video.

And deeeetroit is to broke to write a check.

Gunner

I realize that this source isn't much different than the Huffington Post, but it does have the video.

[video:youtube]http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/04/girl-death-detroit-police-raid-video/2389623/[/video]

Tragic, gotta trust the jury on this one since they'll hear all the evidence.

I have to say that a SWAT raid seems fine since they were going after a murderer. But if the "tip of the spear" stood in the doorway for 3 seconds I don't think I'd call these guys an elite team.

No note taking during the trial is odd, though. Notes were encouraged both times I was on a jury (one federal, one state), and were tremendously helpful.

Plus the Little Girl was a Black and that is two strikes against him from the start. In Detroit you couldn't fire a shot in any direction without hitting Black

In six days that dumbphuck would have been on the job a week, what an orchestration of stupidness.

Gunner

I suspect Detroit SWAT's point man has been down a few halls.

lol

Having potentially done something wrong a lot of times doesn't make one an expert.

How exactly can you properly execute a swat raid when you have a distracting film crew that you have to be concerned with?

Why would they conduct the raid while a 7 year old girl was present in the home? Did they not have surveillance? Maybe catch the guy as he's leaving the home?

A few years ago there was a program that followed various SWAT teams around with a camera.

I was most impressed with the Dallas team. Very professional, very creative, and they actually understood TACTICS.

There was another Texas team I liked. They would deploy their snipers ahead of time and have them in an over watch position before the raid team would even arrive. There were team that understood it was prior planning and excellent execution was what brought everyone home, and not an unplanned application of brute force.

The one I was the least impressed with was Detroit. When Detroit was on I called it "Amateur Hour".

I guess you were right.

No big surprise. Here is a recent ranking of the world's best SWAT teams.

1.GSG 9, Germany
2.San Antonio, Texas
3.Lexington, Kentucky, Emergency Response Unit
4.Dallas, Texas
5.DOE, Arkansas
6.Lawrence-Livermore, California
7.Plano, Texas
8.Wake County S.R.T., North Carolina
9.Bruce Power, Canada
10.Austin, Texas
11.Beaumont, Texas
12.Arkansas, State police
13.Taiwan
14.Shelby County, Tennessee
15.Nellis Air Force Base
16.Indiana, State Police
17.Contra Costa, California
18.Alabama, State Police
19.West Hartford, Connecticut
20.Missouri, State police

Smile more (at the camera)...that's how.

Everyone wants to be in show business.

L.W.

I went through MP training in the Reserves with some gentlemen from #16 above.

Learned a lot from those guys. Very professional.

And that was a couple decades ago.

""He pulls back and his hand hits the trigger. ... It was an accident. It was not careless. It was not reckless," the defense lawyer said."

His hand shouldn't have hit the trigger no matter what.