Family of a 7-year-old Detroit girl are pointing fingers at police after they say officers wrongfully shot and killed the child while she was sleeping on the family’s living room sofa.
Aiyana Jones was shot through the neck Sunday after police burst into her family’s home looking for a homicide suspect.
Police say the lead officer’s weapon discharged after he got into a physical struggle with the child’s grandmother Mertilla Jones.
Jones tells a different story however and told the Detroit News that as soon as she heard officers she cooperated and had to watch the murder of her grandchild.
“I hit the floor when I heard them hit the window. They blew my granddaughter’s brains out. They killed her right before my eyes. I watched the light go out of her eyes. I seen it.”
Police later said that an officer may have “just collided” with the grandmother unintentionally setting off the weapon.
During a press conference Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said officers set off a flash grenade as they entered the apartment with their guns drawn about 12:40 a.m. Sunday with a warrant to look for a suspect in the Friday slaying of a 17-year-old boy.
Things went array however leaving Aiyana shot and rushed to a hospital where she later died.
Her father Charles Jones tells the Detroit News that he saw officers rush out with his daughter but wasn’t told where she was going or offered any consolation.
“I saw them (police) running with my daughter out of the house. They had my mother on the floor, and they just kept me there for like two hours…I knew it was bad, and they probably had my baby at the hospital, because someone asked me if she had any allergies. Her blood was everywhere and I was trying to stay calm, but nobody would talk to me. None of them even tried to console me.”
The homicide suspect police were looking for was found but Chief Godbee reflected on the situation telling reporters that it was “every parent’s worst nightmare” and “every police officer’s worst nightmare” as well.
