7 year old Aiyana Stanley Jones fatally shot in Detroit police raid
A 7-year-old Detroit girl was shot and killed this morning after a Detroit Police officer’s weapon discharged while executing a search warrant for a homicide suspect on the city’s east side, police said this morning.
The officer involved is on paid leave pending the investigation, said Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee.
The shooting occurred while officers from the police department’s Special Response Team were looking for a suspect connected to the Friday shooting death of 17-year-old Jarean Blake, a Southeastern High School student.
And it comes at a time when the city is reeling from two weeks of tragic shooting deaths — including that of Detroit Police Officer Brian Huff on May 3.
In today’s incident, officers threw a flash bang device — which causes a bright flash and noise — into a home in the 4000 block of Lillibridge on the city’s east side at about 12:45 a.m., and immediately entered, guns drawn, said Godbee.
A 46-year-old woman in the front room of the house had a physical tussle with the first officer and his gun discharged, hitting Aiyana Stanley Jones in the head and neck area, police said.
Medics with the team took her to St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The department’s chaplains have been in contact with the family, Godbee said.
The shooting is still under investigation, he said. And the department offers its condolences to Aiyana’s family.
“We have executed countless high risk warrants where children have been present,” Godbee told the Free Press this morning. “This was a perfect storm for tragedy.”
The woman involved in the tussle has been taken into custody, as is the suspect sought in Blake’s death, although no charges have been issued yet.
Police did not release names of either the woman or the suspect. It’s unclear how or if Aiyana is related to either.
The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality will host a candlelight vigil at the home where Jones died today: 8 p.m. at 4054 Lillibridge, Detroit.
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