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Update: 5/19/10 - 12:41 pm - In the Detroit Free Press, sources from the police department have shared their account of what happened the night that Aiyana was killed.
Update: 5/18/10 - 1:39 pm - Attorneys file lawsuits on behalf of Aiyana Jones' family.
Update: 5/17/10 - 10:27 pm - Geoffrey Fieger, the attorney representing the family of Aiyana Jones, says police are trying to cover up the truth about what exactly happened.
Update: 5/17/10 - 6:48 pm - Video disputes police account of shooting. Says that shooting occurred outside the home, rather than inside.
"Profound sorrow" was expressed by police in Detroit on Sunday, after the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones. The little girl was killed by police executing a search warrant during a homicide investigation. Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee gave a statement expressing his regret, "This is any parent's worst nightmare. It also is any police officer's worst nightmare. And today, it is all too real."On Sunday morning, the police acted on a warrant at 12:40 a.m. on the east side of Detroit. Police were searching for the suspect in the shooting death of 17-year old Jarean Blake and believed the culprit was hiding at the home. Early reports say that the Detroit Police Special Response Team came in to the house and announced themselves as police.
"As is common in these types of situations, the officers deployed a distractionary device commonly known as a flash bang," the assistant chief said. "The purpose of the device is to temporarily disorient occupants of the house to make it easier for officers to safely gain control of anyone inside and secure the premise."
After entering in to the home, officers encountered a 46-year-old female in the front room. What happened from that point on is the subject of an ongoing investigation.
"At about this time, the officer's weapon discharged one round, which tragically struck 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones in the neck and head area," said Godbee.
Aiyana was immediately taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her father, Charles Jones, told CNN affiliate WDIV, "She was sleeping and they came in the door shooting and throwing flash grenades ... burned my baby up and shot her, killed her."
Jones claims that officers were at the wrong house. But Godbee said that the suspect in Blake's death was found and arrested at the home. They also found a vehicle matching the description of the one used in Blake's shooting. Some witnesses are saying they warned the police that there were children inside the home, pointing to toys in the front yard.
"Because of the ruthless and violent nature of the suspect in this case, it was determined that it would be in the best interest of public safety to execute the search warrant as soon as possible and detain the suspect ... while we sought a murder warrant," Godbee said.
There isn't much to say about this terrible tragedy that we aren't already thinking. It's hard to presume that the officers were doing something unethical or illegal, especially if the suspect was in the home with the children. At the same time, I am hopeful that the Detroit police will review their procedures to find better ways to protect children and citizens, when they are confronted with dangerous situations. If officers were made aware that children were in harm's way, then apprehending the suspect should have taken a back seat to protecting the kids in that house.
I am sure that the officer responsible for the shooting feels terrible for taking this child's life. My father, who was a police officer for 25 years, said that there is a tremendous amount of emotional devastation when a cop is involved in a shooting, even in cases where it is justified. In this case, the shooting was clearly unjustified, but appears to have been accidental. May the truth be uncovered and may little Aiyana rest in peace.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 
Comments: (72)
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By: Monica Davis on 5/17/2010 2:58PM
The problem with executing warrants at "O dark thirty" in the morning is that human's are at their lowest point in their circadian rhythms. While cops can catch suspects off guard, they also are not fully functioning, as we are not a nocturnal species. The accidental discharge of a weapons speaks to poor weapons discipline, but the "wee hour" factor can not be discounted.
That child lost her life, her family is in turmoil, and the police officer who fired his weapon accidentally will never be the same.
As long as the US maintains a drug culture, we will see more of the same.
And, for the haters, let me explain what I mean by drug culture.
The US is the world's largest illegal drug consumer. We have an underground drug culture which rivals the Fortune 500. Most of the profits go anywhere but the 'Hood, but it is in the 'Hood that the devastation caused by drugs is most visible. Others are getting rich, using the drug culture as an excuse to divest us of our civil rights and turn the nation in to a police state. Remember these statistics: blacks and whites have roughly an equal percent of drug usage. If that is so, then why are the drug killings convcentrated in the 'Hood.
I could go on and on, but this child's death hurts me down to my soul.
Little sister. Rest in peace. May your death not have been in vain.
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By: James Gadson on 5/17/2010 5:33PM
"O dark thirty" "circadian rhythms"
Go on with your human nature issues. They haven't been an issue nor will they ever be. When you speak of a drug war you must understand that the U.S. is the biggest drug dealer in the world. You must know that the CIA has dumped drugs into black neighborhoods more than a few times and quite frankly love saturating our areas with drug pollution.
You must understand that the drug war is a very lucrative undertaking for the ultra elite who run this country.
Sure there are police who do the job for the dollar. They have no real love for the people they are at work! They do what they are told in most instances but because the U.S. societal culture is one a of racist nature the police and military have been conditioned well to disregard black people of any rights. Don't be fooled by media or government hype!
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By: Larry Hall on 5/16/2010 10:27PM
The coward hid behind children - too bad he wasn't the victim! Hope his survivors don't consider him a hero, but a coward.
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By: LadyJMJ1 on 5/16/2010 10:46PM
As unfortunate as this situation happens to be - IT REQUIRES accuracy in its reporting.
From WDIV (copy and paste the entire story) (http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/23570515/detail.html) "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact," Godbee said."
There is a distinct possibility that the struggle between the Officer and the Mother maybe the ONLY reason for the child being shot.
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By: s. Williams on 5/17/2010 4:03AM
You are trying to blame this child's mother for her death when it was the policeman that shot her in the head/neck. You try to justify it further by calling her the VICTIM. She was that mother's beautiful little girl child who is now dead. How dare you blame the Mother.
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By: James Gadson on 5/17/2010 4:44PM
Every time you let the police tell the story it will be repaired to favor the police. The police are not good. They can never be good on the premise that they do what they are told on the one hand, and on the other, they generally acquire a feeling of euphoric power at the same time they feel fear of everything around them. Especially where blacks are concerned.
When they do violent things against the people whether it's purposely or accidental they receive the full support of a powerful judicial system to compliment them. Whereas blacks get mediocre support from all government and local agencies.
The only excuse police need when they kill anyone is the one they make up, but they will be less scrutinized if they kill a black, or other person of color, and more scrutinized when killing a white.
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By: James Gadson on 5/16/2010 10:52PM
The police generally treat African-Americans with less respect than they do Caucasians. Need I say more? The memories of Americanized people are so short that they find it very hard to connect different events by very obvious examples.
Remember that they dropped a bomb on a building full of men women and children? They Wiped out two or three whole communities in other places? Remember that they shot and killed a man the day before his wedding? Remember Amadu Dialo? Remember they shot and killed a young black lady sleeping in her car in Riverside CA? Remember that they used a broken broomstick on Abner Louima's rectum?
Whenever you see a car chase and the suspect is black you can expect either a Rodney King beating or a shooting, but when they chase a white suspect who may even have a gun they take extra precautions to bring him in unscathed. Do you bother to compare? Remember the cop who arrested Obama's friend at his own house? Ok that's a tiny percentage of the examples just waiting for you to remember or ever learn about. Also remember that black police can be infected with the blue fever combined with self hate.So don't let yourselves be fooled by ignorance or whatever!
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By: Blind Justice on 5/17/2010 12:38AM
Just to add to your truths of the matters, it was the 1885 MOVE family movement in Philly, where the Black mayor droped the bomb from a helicopter killing 3or4 children 4adults, and wipping out 61 homes in a 3 block area. Also going back to 1971, you had 10 year old Clifford Glover(a student I taught in 5th grade)One April morning in 1973 a veteran police officer named Thomas Shea pulled his service revolver and blew away a young black boy on a street in Jamaica, Queens. He shot the kid in the back. There was no chance of survival. Afterward, no one could figure out why the officer had done it. There was no reason for the shooting, no threat to Officer Shea of any kind. The boy's name was Clifford Glover and he was 10 years old.
Officer Shea was charged with murder but of course he was acquitted.
Randolph Evans 15Years By NYPD P.O. Torsney 75TH PCT. BKLYN)1975 Thankgiving Day. Evans was left in the back of the Police car to die in the back seat. Torsney shot Evans in his housing hallway for saying "I'm sure glade you guys aint coming to see me". Torsney memo book had Happy Felony Thanksgiving" written in it. He was angry he had to work on Thanksgiving day.
15 year old Randolph Evans was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Night in 1976. Officer, Robert Torsney, was called to a housing project in Brooklyn to investigate a man with a gun. He met with group of young black men and proceeded to shoot the unarmed Evans for no given reason. Although he never was treated for epilepsy, Torsney’s defense maintained that he killed Evans because of a rare case of epilepsy and he was acquitted on the grounds of mental insanity.
Albert Spruil was a 57 year old church-going city worker. Her only crime was living in the wrong neighborhood. Cops believed that there was a large amount of guns, drugs and vicious dogs in her Harlem apartment. Without knocking they battered her door in and threw a flash grenade into her apartment. Although they found now weapons or drugs in her apartment, they put her in handcuffs. Despite the fact that she told them she had a heart problem, it took an hour and half to get her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. The no knock raids have also killed a 92 year old black woman in Atlanta. Although no officers were charged in the incident, Spruil’s family collected $1.6 million for the incident.
The bridge between those outlandish cases of the 1970's and Monday's demoralizing acquittal of Police Officer Francis X. Livoti in the killing of Anthony Baez is littered with the bodies of New Yorkers of all ages whose lives were summarily and unjustly taken by New York City cops who managed in virtually every instance to beat the rap.
Eleanor Bumpurs is on that bridge, and Anibal Carasquillo. Ms. Bumpurs was the overweight, arthritic, emotionally disturbed 66-year-old woman who was shotgunned to death by police who broke into her apartment in a case that had to do with unpaid rent. Ms. Bumpurs, confused and counseled by her family never to let strangers into the apartment, picked up a carving knife when the cops burst in. That was the end of her.
Mr. Carasquillo, 21, was shot to death on a Brooklyn street by a police officer in January 1995. The worst the police could say about Mr. Carasquillo, who was unarmed, was that he had been peering into the windows of parked cars. There is reason to doubt the police on even that point inasmuch as they also said he had been shot in the chest. It turned out he had been shot in the back.
The case went before a grand jury but no indictment was returned.
There are many, many similar cases. Last summer I visited the grieving family of Nathaniel Gaines Jr., a 25-year-old Navy veteran of the gulf war who was shot to death by a police officer on a subway platform in the Bronx on the Fourth of July. Mr. Gaines was unarmed and had no police record. The shooting was inexplicable.
Said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, ''There does not seem to be any reason for it.''
The Mayor apologized to the Gaines family. The police officer, Paolo Colecchia, was indicted for manslaughter. But the apology and the indictment were like whispers in a hurricane. Nothing has changed. The killings continue because no one has stepped forward to make it clear to the sadists and the sociopaths and the raging, howling racists in the Police Department that their murderous behavior will not be tolerated.
Instead, the entire political and criminal justice establishment has gone out of its way to send the opposite message: Once you button up that uniform and strap on that sidearm you can brutalize certain types of people with impunity.
Officer Livoti, acquitted of choking Mr. Baez to death in a confrontation over a touch football game, had been the focus of 14 prior civilian complaints, only one of which was substantiated. In that one, still pending, he is accused of slapping and choking a 16-year-old boy who allegedly had ridden a go-cart recklessly. That complaint was made by the boy's mother in September 1993 but was not acted upon until after Mr. Baez was killed in December 1994.
In recent years the department has gotten more brutal, not less, with civilian complaints up from 977 in 1987 to more than 2,000 in 1994, according to a study by Amnesty International. The study said the amount of money paid to complainants in settlements or judgments in police abuse cases had also risen, from $13.5 million in 1992 to more than $24 million in 1994.
No one wants to pay much attention, but there is an awful sickness coursing through the N.Y.P.D., the only city agency that tolerates murder.
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By: walt on 5/17/2010 6:03AM
That's a load of BS! Bottom line is if the person(s) hadn't been involved in the wrongdoing, this would've never happened in the first place! It doesn't matter if they were black white or plaid! Folks need to stop putting their families in danger by doing dirt! Period!
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By: krystal matthews on 5/17/2010 12:02PM
In jacksonville Florida the police shot 45 times into a car and shot a 2 yr old.when the car was carjacked in wendys parking lot ..The first shot killed the carjacker but they kept shooting shot the mom the 2yr old the 7 year old was unharmed .We have a lot of police shooting in jacksonville florida all black.
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