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

And go home safe. That's all that really matters.

Larry, I remember that as well. Eventually the family was paid 500k. I always figured they were underpaid, and if it was a white family it would of been close to 2mm.

In that incident no one who performed the surveillance or swore out the warrant was present for the raid, and they ended up at the wrong house. As a result of this incident Denver changed their rules this type of raids. Now the officer that signs the warrant must be the office who physically knocks on the door.

If the 'fire is a reliable barometer, I disagree with your statement.

Every time a bunch of cops beat up or kill a citizen for no reason, a BUNCH of the LEO's here go to great pains to point out just how many really GREAT cops there are.

Or physically knocks the door down.

So...is Detroit gonna burn when he's found not guilty?

we couldn't be that lucky

Would anybody be able to tell the difference if it did burn?

Not likely.

I read the judge cleared the court room because the jurors could be heard "talking loudly" at one another.

I am afraid it's going to be hung.

Dink

Detroit -- A Wayne Circuit judge has declared a mistrial in the trial of a Detroit police officer accused in the death of a seven-year-old girl.

Jurors on Tuesday told Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway they were unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Officer Joseph Weekley, who fatally shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones during the May 16, 2010, search for a murder suspect at an eastside duplex.

The panel of eight men and four women were huddled for three days after eight days of trial testimony.

Around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the jury sent Hathaway two notes: one explaining "there has been no significant movement... we are stuck."

The second note sought clarification on whether they should consider some or all of elements within the charges of involuntary manslaughter or reckless discharge of a firearm causing death.

An hour later, the jury remained hung and Hathaway declared the mistrial.

Regarding the first note. Hathaway instructed: "Go back to the jury room and resume your deliberations, and if you feel you can't reach a verdict, send another note."

On the second note, Hathaway told jurors that in order to find Weekley guilty prosecutors must have proved that the defendant cause Aiyana's death and that he acted grossly negligent in doing so.

In order to find gross negligence it must be proven that he knew of the danger; could have avoided injury by using ordinary care; and that he failed to use ordinary care when it was apparent to a reasonable person that failing to do so would cause injury, the judge said.

Weekley faced charges of involuntary manslaughter, which carries up to 15 years in prison, and reckless discharge of a firearm causing death, a two-year misdemeanor.

During the first day of deliberations on Friday, jurors reviewed video footage shown during the trial taken by cameramen from the A&E network's "First 48" reality TV program.

The video showed police planning the raid, the raid itself, along with a few minutes of a videotaped interrogation of Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, when she was taken into custody hours after the raid.

Weekley, a member of the Detroit Police Special Response Team, entered the lower flat in search of Chauncey Owens, who is accused of fatally shooting 17-year-old Jer'ean Blake because he allegedly didn't like the way Blake looked at him.

Seconds after police entered the duplex, Weekley's gun went off, killing Aiyana as she slept with her grandmother, Jones, on the living room couch.

A single shot from his MP-5 submachine gun fatally struck Aiyana. Weekley testified he didn't know his gun fired.

ghunterdetroitnews.com

Sad deal all the way around.

He went home safe. Prosecutors will accept a guilty plea on the misdemeanor charge and drop the felony charge.Cop goes back to being a cop.

What's not to like?

Send for the film crew and tell 'em "same game, same rules".

DETROIT �The credibility of a witness is of utmost importance, most lawyers agree.

Mertila Jones was the only eyewitness, other than defendant Detroit Police Special Response Team Officer Joseph Weekley, who saw her 7-year-old granddaughter, Aiyana Jones, shot and killed on May 16, 2010 when police raided her home in search of murder suspect Chauncey Owens.

In most regards, she is the prosecution's star witness.

It is her changing story and other inconsistencies that could seal a not guilty verdict for Weekley, who claims Jones slammed his gun, causing him to unintentionally fire. Weekley said he didn't feel his gun go off, but realized it had when seconds later, after leaving the room and returning, he saw Jones straddling her dying grandchild.

Soon after the death, Jones said she believed the gunshot came from outside, possibly confusing the flashbang grenade thrown through the front window with a gunshot. In court last week, she described the shooting more like an assassination.

"They came to kill," she said, "and they killed a 7 year old."

Jones told the court she watched Weekley aim his gun at Aiyana before it fired and could see no remorse in his eyes.

During an argument to Hathaway prior to closing statements, Weekley's defense attorney Steven Fishman said, "no reasonable juror would believe anything she said."

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran spent a portion of his closing statements trying to preserve the remaining value of Jones' testimony.

"We know that Officer Weekley, I said from the very beginning, did not intentionally kill Aiyana Jones," Moran said to the jury. "Think about what she sees as this man, the defendant, in full riot gear, has this gun in his hand as he walks into her house. The gun goes off... her granddaughter is killed and she witnesses the whole thing.

"This is a woman who just saw her granddaughter be shot in the head and they put her in handcuffs... and put her in a cell... So when you think about how she testifies on the stand, think about how this department treated her."

The discrepancy in the manner of the shooting was not the only testimony that potentially damaged Jones' credibility.

She was asked several questions by defense attorney Steven Fishman about her knowledge of Chauncey Owens, the suspect and eventual convict of the murder of 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake outside a party store in broad daylight near her home two days prior to the raid.

Police testified that Owens, her daughter's fiance who lived in the upstairs apartment of the two-unit home and who'd often been in Jones' apartment based on police surveillance, rode a moped, one of the vehicles seen on the day Blake died.

Jones claimed no knowledge of Owens owning a moped.

Fishman asked if Jones knew how or why there were 14 shell casings discovered in the home's backyard � a state police investigator later said the total number of bullet casings found on the Lillibridge property was closer to 30.

"I've never been in my backyard," Jones responded.

Moran asked Jones and several other witnesses who lived at the Lillibridge home if they had seen any guns in the home or were aware of any of the occupants owning guns. None were discovered during the police raid.

Jones said she had not.

On Monday, Fishman presented photos from the Facebook page of Mark Robinson, who lived in the home, depicting multiple witnesses flaunting handguns and an AK-47. Moran argued there is no telling when or where those photos were taken.


Although Jones is his Facebook "friend" of Robinson, she claimed to never have seen the photos or guns at the address, adding that one looked like a "toy gun" and the other "a BB gun."


In his closing arguments, Moran asked the jury to "forget about 'The Firs 48,' forget about Mertila Jones" and "think about what the obligations were of the defendant."

"Think about what he is supposed to do when he had that gun in his hand entering the house," Moran said. "He was supposed to keep his finger off the trigger.

"And he didn't do that."

""This is a woman who just saw her granddaughter be shot in the head and they put her in handcuffs... and put her in a cell... So when you think about how she testifies on the stand, think about how this department treated her."

The prosecutor should have been able to get a conviction without calling her.

Nobody threatened the cop, but he kills a 7 YO little girl who is sleeping.

That's ALL the evidence a reasonable juror needs to convict him. All the other stuff is extraneous and should play no part in the verdict.

Of course, the real guilt lies with whoever authorized the SWAT raid, but the cop could have refused to go in the house. And a bullet from HIS gun killed the little girl.

The crime was an outrage, and the lack of a verdict is an outrage.

So you were in the apartment and this was your observation...

So who is responsible for verdict then ?

There was no verdict.

I blame the jury for that.

The hung jury was a victory for the defense.

And a defeat for Lady Justice.

Those facts are not in dispute.

There will be winks, nods & high fives in a certain segment over this travesty. Can you hear the collective sigh of relief? What a pitiful, pitiful mess this has been. Easy to predict, but pitiful. Little sleeping jerk had it coming, I guess.. Nexxxxt!

Cops and robbers have always lived on the edge. That edge has always been the gossip of those that have never neared it.