Death of 7-Year-Old Aiyana Jones Featured on Mother Jones

Motherjones.com did an interesting article about the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones. I wrote about Aiyana a few months ago, after she was shot and killed during a police raid in the city of Detroit. The raid involved the use of flash-bang grenades and even had a TV camera in tow as an officer's gun shot Aiyana in the head while she was sleeping. The camera crew was there to shoot a special for A&E.

I was incredibly disappointed by the events surrounding the shooting of Jones. First, there was the fact that it appears that police lied about how she was shot. The original autopsy said that she was shot in the neck, and an independent autopsy found that she was shot in the head. There was also the police story about Aiyana's grandmother fighting to take the officer's gun, which doesn't appear to have been the truth. Third, there was the change in story surrounding the place from which the shots were fired: officers said they shot from inside the house, but video evidence seems to show that shots were fired from the porch.

Another interesting thing about the Jones case is that the S.W.A.T. team didn't appear to be properly briefed on the presence of kids in the house. I spoke with a high ranking police official in another city who said that he found it unbelievable that the officers were not briefed on the presence of children, especially since there were toys in the front yard. Operations of this nature require a great deal of planning, as public safety must be of paramount importance. Other officers find it surprising that they would use flash bang grenades in a situation like this one.

The Mother Jones article quotes high ranking Detroit police officials who claim that the officers might have "went Hollywood," given that the A&E cameras were rolling at the time. One officer went as far as describing the situation as a "total f*ck up." I must confess that I completely agree with those sentiments.

It appears that going Hollywood will prove costly to the Detroit Police Department. In a city that can hardly afford the money, they are now finding themselves vulnerable to serious legal problems. The family is in the middle of a lawsuit, and I expect they want a significant amount of money. No matter what happens with the lawsuit, no one will have paid a higher price than little Aiyana Jones. Her story is the highlight of a city full of horrific and untold tragedies.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.