The First 48 photographer Allison Howard was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. It fired. Funeral for Chaise Sherrors, JeReans best friend. McNeal wondered how she was going to pay the $3,000 for her sons funeral. As for the videotape of the killing, Geoffrey Fieger said he did not have it. Thats one less knucklehead driving around looking to do a drive-by., His approach was successful, with murder dropping more than 20 percent in his first year. But according to a witness, he said nothing. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Chaises mother, Britta McNeal, 39, sat on the porch staring blankly into the distance, smoking no-brand cigarettes. On May 14, 2010, Jones handed a .357 magnum pistol to his friend Chauncey Owens, who gunned down Cargill's son, 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake, outside the Motor City Marketplace on Mack at St. Jean on Detroit's east side. Lyvonne Cargill wears a shirt that honors her son, JeRean Blake Nobles. To me, thats like writing about the surf conditions in the Gaza Strip. 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. The judge denied the motion for mistrial, saying she believed the jury could still be "impartial." Even if you check the TT's of each city Aiyana is nowhere to . Tens of thousands of them, hundreds of thousands. I would have waited until the morning when the guy went to the liquor store to buy a quart of milk. First published on January 30, 2015 / 4:13 PM. A reality TV crew recorded the scene from the street. [42] While Sanders was on the stand, Judge Cynthia Hathaway told her that she (Sanders) was being "disrespectful. The morning after he was shot, Chaises clippers were mysteriously deposited on his front porch, wiped clean and free of hair. 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. What the fuck you looking at?. Even in Detroit, a predominantly black city. Owens sped two blocks back to Lillibridge and gathered up a posse, according to his statement to the police. On Friday, Hathaway dismissed a lesser second charge, of reckless use of a firearm. The conceit of the show is that homicide detectives have 48 hours to crack a murder case before the trail goes cold. But defense attorney Steve Fishman says Jones has no credibility because she's told different stories about what happened. Desperation, she said, feels like someones reaching down your throat and ripping out your guts. This has helped reinforce a culture shift within police departments. It was a sweatbox, and I went across the street to the liquor store for a soda pop. 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. 2:45 Detroit Charles Jones, whose role in a high school student's 2010 slaying helped spark the police raid that ended with the officer-involved shooting death of his 7-year-old daughter. Lord Jesus, I ain't never seen nothing like that in my life."--Mertilla Jones, Aiyana's grandmother. Detroit has since made little progress on the federal consent decree. I saw him in the face of my sisters daughter, who died from a heroin overdose in a suburban basement near the interstate, weeks after I moved back to Michigan with my wife to raise our daughter and take a job with the Detroit News. He might have smirked. Jurors will get instructions from a judge and then start deliberations in the trial of a Detroit police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a, The re-trial of a Detroit police officer who killed a young girl during a May 2010 raid began Thursday.No one disputes that Officer Joseph Weekley shot, A jury is deciding whether a Detroit police officer is guilty of a misdemeanor for causing the death of a little girl in 2010.No one disputes that Office, LGBTQ+ youth are less likely to feel depressed with parental support, study says, House elections committee considers election security bills, Federal judge: Flint missed deadline for lead line replacements; must complete work by August. The crumbling houses still crumble. On October 10, the second trial ended in another mistrial. I have . She arrived too late. So bad is it for Detroits children that Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last year, I lose sleep over that one.. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Jones had just gone to bed after covering his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana with her favorite blanket. His mothers house on Lillibridge, he said, was just supposed to be a way station to better things. 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.. The gimmick was to have its reporters live there and chronicle the decline of the Motor City for one year. [CLICK HERE FOR CHARLIE LEDUFFS EXPOSE ON THE DETROIT AMBULANCE SYSTEM. 2) NO WEAPONS OF ANY KIND WERE FOUND IN OR OUTSIDE THE HOME OF MERTILLA JONES after the police Special Response Team raid. The president of the school board, Otis Mathis, recently admitted that he had only rudimentary writing skills shortly before being forced to resign for fondling himself during a meeting with the school superintendent. 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. Some people are doomed from birth because their environment is so toxic.. The individual being sought at the multi-family dwelling was a suspect in a murder that took place at about 3:00 p.m. the previous Friday. She was only a baby, man. As Detroit led the nation in median income and homeownership, automation and foreign competition were forcing companies like Packard to shutter their doors. The department decided to withdraw him from active duty shortly after the shooting on May 16, 2010. The illiteracy, child poverty, and unemployment rates hover around 50 percent. They drove her there every morning, five miles. 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. Behind him stood two rookies. The whole country knew it, and the whole country laughed. The radio was tuned to NPR and A Prairie Home Companion came warbling out of my speakers. Evans drivera copgave chase. Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. The fact is a police officer threw the flash grenade through the window of the house that landed on Aiyana's blanket . I need help. Thats when Owens, 34, pulled up on a moped. and Weekley for the unlawful use of excessive force. Even the beavers have returned.The daughter of an autoworker and a home nurse, McNeal grew up in the promise of the black middle class that Detroit once offered. Except there aint no job. Uncategorized. This happened on Sunday. School wasnt a priority. It would be easy to lay the blame on McNeal for the circumstances in which she raised her sons. 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?. [15], The building was a duplex; Owens's girlfriend LaKrysta Sanders lived in the upstairs apartment, while her mother and Aiyana Jones' grandmother, Mertilla Jones, lived in the downstairs apartment. Jones was born on July 20, 2002, to Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley in Detroit, Michigan. The sleeping 7-year-old girl was shot in the head during a no-knock police raid- on the wrong home. Officer Joseph Weekley, the lead commandowhod been featured before on another A&E show, Detroit SWATburst into the house. It was unlocked. The red halo around his skull gave the scene a feeling of serenity. January 7, 2022 . Sanders was Aiyana Jones's paternal aunt, the girlfriend of Chauncey Owens, and the daughter of Mertilla Jones. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. Behind the door was Jason Gibson, 25, a violent man with a history of gun crimes, assaults on police, and repeated failures to honor probationary sentences. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2023 demands. Jones broke down during testimony and had to be escorted out amid sobbing after addressing Weekley who was also in the courtroom directly. In this current era, what she calls her "most confident" yet, she's channeling none other than her go-getter Bel-Air character Hilary Banks . Inside the lower unit of a duplex halfway down the gloomy street, Charles Jones, 25, was pacing, unable to sleep. The settlement was finalized just days prior to the scheduled civil trial. Two days later, a crew from the Detroit Police Special Response Team raided Jones' house on Lillibridge Street, blocks from the store. The Detroit City Council needs to approve the settlement. [24] Geoffrey Fieger, the family's lawyer, said the police fired the shot that struck Aiyana from outside the home, possibly through the open front door. We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. The beavers disappeared from the river around 1930. On 16 May 2010, Aiyana was shot dead by Weekley in the middle of the night, as she slept on a sofa inside her home on the east side of Detroit. Unclaimed bodies at the Wayne County MorgueTHE RAID ON THE Lillibridge house that took little Aiyanas life came two weeks and at least a dozen homicides after the last time police stormed into a Detroit home. Jones pleaded guilty tosecond-degree murder and was sentenced to40-60 years, although in 2017 the Michigan Court of Appeals granted him a new trial. I think its one of the lowest things I have ever seen.. 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. The blood was congealing into a pancake on the dirty linoleum. I cant heal properly because of it. Charlie LeDuff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, filmmaker, and multimedia reporter. Predictably, Gibson did not show for his new court date. The walls are covered with photographs of Geoffrey Fieger. Many are as fucked up and sad as Aiyanas. You might blame it on the urban renewal and interstate highway projects that rammed a freeway down the middle of Paradise Valley, displacing thousands of blacks and packing the Negro tenements tighter still. The raid took place at about 12:30 a.m. What occurred next has been disputed by police officers, bystanders, and neighboring residents. 2023 www.detroitnews.com. Danny Wilcox Frazier is a contributing photographer for Mother Jones. For instance, in 2008 a man was shot in the head. That night, she was murdered by the very people meant to "protect" and "serve" her. I forgive him, but I don't forget what he did.". Skyscrapers sprang up virtually overnight. Sharptons full of shit, said JeReans mother. Grover 08:10, 10 June 2014 (UTC) Reply . But she added: "I hope he does the right thing when he gets outand triesto help these other young Black males out here;tell them about lifeand tell them what he did.". "We had to do it by paperwork, and they read the letters from my side of the family (during the parole hearing)," Cargill said. In 2010, a 7-year-old girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was slaughtered during a police raid of her home in Detroit. But the fact is Detroit and its suburbs were dying 40 years ago. 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. 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. 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. He computerized daily crime statistics, created a mobile strike force commanded by young and educated go-getters, and dispatched cops to crime hot spots. Barry, who has been active in demonstrations against police violence and whose organization has mounted a formal campaign to demilitarize the police, said there were two separate justice systems in the US. As Officer Weekley wept on the sidewalk, Aiyana was rushed to the trauma table, where she was pronounced dead. [56] A spokesman for city police demanded that Fieger share the tape's contents with Michigan State Police investigators. A fresh trial was scheduled for December 2013,[29] but actually began in September 2014. People taking advanage of my benevolence. Both trials ended with hung juries. Aiyanas death garnered national attention, including sharp criticism from the Revs. [12], Owens was later found guilty of Blake's murder. No Glue or Lace Hiring Black Folks. 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. Police fired a flash grenade through the front window. The killing contributed to raising national awareness of the ongoing issue of young unarmed African Americans being killed by police. It was all for the cameras. In 2010 Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old African American girl, was accidentally shot and killed during a raid that was conducted by the Detroit, Michigan Police Department's Special Response Team. The manslaughter trial was declared a mistrial. In Michigan, the designation for homicide is actually 750.316 (PDF), but thats just a mouthful of detail. The jury stall resulted in seven voting "not guilty" and five voting "guilty". Owens, a habitual criminal, was arrested upstairs minutes after Aiyanas shooting and charged for the slaying of JeRean. Robert Bobb was hired in 2009 as the emergency financial manager and given sweeping powers to balance the books. The city provided clothing, fuel, rent, and $10 every week to adults for food; children got $5. AP Photo/The Detroit News, John T. Greilick, How Alaska became one of fentanyl's deadliest frontiers, Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect, Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. Then they said he ran out the back of the house, even though there is no back door. I got no money. In Detroit, only 1 in 3 kids will graduate from high school. So is the house across the street. The number was actually 375. You might blame postwar industrial policies that sent the factories to the suburbs, the rural South, and the western deserts. The smell was beastly. It is like that all over Detroit, where whole blocks regularly go dark with no warning or any apparent pattern. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. Why you looking at me? said Owens, getting off the moped. Owens didn't like the way the Southeastern High School teen had looked at him, according to court testimony. Capitol Commission moves toward firearm ban, Biden's student loan relief faces its biggest test yet at the Supreme Court, Jury to decide fate of Detroit cop who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Second trial begins for Detroit police officer who shot Aiyana Jones, Detroit officer faces misdemeanor charge in Aiyana Jones's death; jury deliberating. He was charged twice with involuntary manslaughter, but both cases ended in mistrials. Aiyana Jones was a seven year old girl living in Detroit, who was killed by the police while sleeping in her own home. [39], On October 3, the judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Weekley. He was formerly a reporter for The Detroit News. Inexplicably, its carcass still stands and burns incessantly. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. , Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them, hundreds thousands... Shift within police departments contents with Michigan State police investigators Charles Jones, 25, was slaughtered a. 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