Officer's gun accidentally kills 7 year old (daughter?) of suspect.

CharlesAFerg · May 16, 2010

Apperently the gun did it.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/16/year-old-girl-shot-killed-police-search-detroit-home/

A 7-year-old girl was shot and killed when an officer's gun went off during a struggle with a woman in a house where Detroit police were searching for a suspect in the slaying of a teenager, MyFoxDetroit.com reported.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said at a news conference Sunday that Aiyana Jones was hit in the neck by a single bullet and died at a hospital.

"This is any parent's worst nightmare. It also is any police officer's worst nightmare," Godbee said.

Godbee reportedly said officers with the department's Special Response Team set off a flash grenade as they entered the home about 12:40 a.m. Sunday with a warrant to look for a suspect in the Friday slaying of a 17-year-old boy.

The lead officer encountered a 46-year-old woman immediately inside the front room of the house and "some level of physical contact" ensued during which the officer's gun went off, according to the station. The officers had reportedly identified themselves as police.

Godbee said Sunday that the shooting was being investigated and all information was preliminary.

"We cannot undo what occurred this morning," he said. "All we can do is to pledge an open and full investigation and to support Aiyana's family in whatever way they may be willing to accept from us at this time."

The officers had a search warrant and were looking for a 34-year-old man suspected in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jarean Blake.

Blake, a student at Southeastern High School, was gunned down Friday by a store in front of his girlfriend. Blake stumbled across the street, collapsed and died, police said.

Officers arrested the suspect inside the home where Aiyana was shot, Godbee said.

"This is a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude to Aiyana's parents, family and all those who loved her," Godbee said. "It is a tragedy we also feel very deeply throughout the ranks of the Detroit Police Department."

Click here to read more on this story from MyFoxDetroit.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Doubletap · May 16, 2010

Yep..the gun did it.. Bad gun...Baaaadddd... No gun donuts for you...

clearconscience · May 16, 2010

That's is horrible. It's sad that the one's who suffer most is the people around the criminals. Not the criminals themselves.

phathom · May 16, 2010

This sucks, however if she had not been harboring a criminal and trying to fight the cops off so he could escape, it wouldn't have happened. It's sad that a young innocent girl had to suffer because of choices her parents(grandparents?).

Trlsmn · May 16, 2010

A 7-year-old girl was shot and killed when an officer's gun went off during a struggle

I really hate it when they say "when the gun went off"..............like it has a mind of it's own.

jordanvraptor · May 16, 2010

I'd be curious to know if the officer pulled the trigger be it intentional or not, or perhaps the woman tried to grab the firearm and inadvertently pulled the trigger?

deen_ad · May 17, 2010

interesting to know what brand/model gun it was.

Deen
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GUNNY · May 17, 2010

prob a GLOCK?
that poor girl lost her life because of a couple of dirt bags. (waisted tallent)

have you guys noticed the amount of police shooting's, are they going up, or are they just reporting more of them?

4Freedom · May 18, 2010

They should ban police from carring guns, that way none of these accidents will ever happen again. LOL

Perhaps we should ban violent crazy people who attack police officers. If you will attack a police officer who is doing his job, you better expect the worst, thats all I can say. That cop has his own family to look after, so shame on the stupid lady who put her daughter in harm's way.

CEF1959 · May 18, 2010

deen_ad said:
interesting to know what brand/model gun it was.

According to press reports, the Detroit PD switched from Glocks to S&W M&P40's last year.

MarkSBG · May 18, 2010

clearconscience said:
That's is horrible. It's sad that the one's who suffer most is the people around the criminals. Not the criminals themselves.

+1

This is why I believe that there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Kids (and the innocent) are invariably tied up with someone making poor life decisions and everyone suffers.

flinch444 · May 19, 2010

MarkSBG said:
+1

This is why I believe that there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Kids (and the innocent) are invariably tied up with someone making poor life decisions and everyone suffers.

Agreed, but did these cops make the situation better or worse by using these tactics? IMO it wasnt worth it, and American citizens deserve better than this, as this is a pretty lame way of being concidered innocent until proven guilty. This is shoot first and hope we find the bad guy.

I saw another one on ORiely last night, cops doing a drug bust late at night in the typical door busting fashon, they shot two dogs right in front of a seven year old kid. You can hear the dogs screaming in the video.
All they got was a misdimeaner amout of pot, and charged the guy with a 300 dollar fine.
Just a little out of line I think, just to keep someone from getin high?

IMO, these tactics are over the top, and un-necessary. They could just as easily knock on the door show their warrent, and search the place without shooting dogs and innocent kids.
Or just pick up their suspect at work, or out front before they get in the car. This has to be safer than busting down doors in the middle of the night where most people are already armed in preparation of a home invasion.

Atroxus · May 19, 2010

Hmmm, I have heard three different versions of this story now. 2 versions I heard on the radio. One stated that the police had the wrong house and that they forced an innocent man face down in his living room in a puddle of his daughter's blood. The second was pretty much the same except that it claimed that the woman in the house denied getting into an altercation with the police. I wonder which one is accurate, if any.

Either way the loss of a 7 year old is tragic. I couldn't wait to hug my son when I got home after hearing about this on the radio.

Martini_Up · May 19, 2010

phathom said:
This sucks, however if she had not been harboring a criminal and trying to fight the cops off so he could escape, it wouldn't have happened. It's sad that a young innocent girl had to suffer because of choices her parents(grandparents?).

Criminal? I thought it was a 'suspect' they were looking for.

Fighting off the cops? Sure it wasn't some woman who was standing there, dazed after being hit with a flash-bang, not responding to verbal commands?

Jamie6.5 · May 19, 2010

flinch444 said:
Agreed, but did these cops make the situation better or worse by using these tactics? IMO it wasnt worth it, and American citizens deserve better than this, as this is a pretty lame way of being concidered innocent until proven guilty. This is shoot first and hope we find the bad guy.

So the cops have a warrant for the arrest of a 34 y/o that is suspected of gunning down a 17 y/o kid, and they are supposed to arrest the guy at his convenience? How many more will the guy shoot before they arrest him that way?

What was the woman who harbored the guy doing allowing him in her house with her 7 y/o daughter?
Why did she get into a physical confrontation with an armed cop executing a warrant?
There were a raft of bad decisions made long before the cops ever got there.

This is why when we complain about cops NOT having a warrant, or not following due process, we get hammered for having a cop-bash.

Too many of the posts here are "cop-bashes" as far as I'm concerned.
YES it is a tragedy a 7 y/o lost her life.
But to put it all on the cops is ridiculous.

And the guy is lucky it wasn't one of OUR 17y/o kids he killed.

flinch444 · May 19, 2010

Jamie6.5 said:
So the cops have a warrant for the arrest of a 34 y/o that is suspected of gunning down a 17 y/o kid, and they are supposed to arrest the guy at his convenience? How many more will the guy shoot before they arrest him that way?

What was the woman who harbored the guy doing allowing him in her house with her 7 y/o daughter?
Why did she get into a physical confrontation with an armed cop executing a warrant?
There were a raft of bad decisions made long before the cops ever got there.

This is why when we complain about cops NOT having a warrant, or not following due process, we get hammered for having a cop-bash.

Too many of the posts here are "cop-bashes" as far as I'm concerned.
YES it is a tragedy a 7 y/o lost her life.
But to put it all on the cops is ridiculous.

And the guy is lucky it wasn't one of OUR 17y/o kids he killed.

Im typically not a cop basher, I just think that these tactics are a bit extreme in most cases and are executed poorly. I can see using them if a known murder is in a building/ hostage situation, ect, but when there are known innocent bystanders and loose ends to get in the way, other options should be considered. I dont think they should be used for petty drug offenses. Many of these people can be taken by simply waiting for them to leave, this is hardly "at their convenience".
I have a friend whos door was smashed in and his family slammed to the floor in a drug raid. The cops had the wrong house. He said if it would have been 20 minutes later he would have been in bed and armed w/ his gun in the night stand. He would have been killed over nothing.

phathom · May 19, 2010

Martini_Up said:
Criminal? I thought it was a 'suspect' they were looking for.

Fighting off the cops? Sure it wasn't some woman who was standing there, dazed after being hit with a flash-bang, not responding to verbal commands?

True, Suspect. However they have probable cause enough to get a warrant to search that residence for the suspect. If he is only a suspect and not a criminal, why was the woman resisting the police physically after being told that they were police, they had a warrant. She still physically resisted the officers and caused a violent confrontation. This does not help his case about being innocent one bit.

It is tragic what happened, the little girl should not have lost her life because of bad decisions that the parents had made, and there may have been bad choices on the officer's hands as well. Unless they were armed, having 2 people in the house and more than one officer, they should have been able to detain them and execute the warrant without resorting to lethal methods, but I don't think we know the entire story there yet.

Had the suspect not have even been around the incident and gave reason that he could be the person to have murdered the 17 year old to be considered a suspect she would have lived.

Had the woman have complied with the officer's warrant rather than physically resisting, she would have lived.

Had the officer pulled a taser instead of his sidearm, the girl probably would have lived as well.

Martini_Up · May 19, 2010

If he is only a suspect and not a criminal, why was the woman resisting the police physically after being told that they were police, they had a warrant. She still physically resisted the officers and caused a violent confrontation. This does not help his case about being innocent one bit.

Again, no place does it say the woman physically resisted. What is does say is there was physical contact with the woman. Knowing what flash-bangs do to people, I'm confident the woman was completely dazed, couldn't hear and the cop yelled at her to get on the ground. Unable to comply as she couldn't hear and disorientated (due to the flash-bang), the cop initiated contact and then the ND caused the child's death.

Father of four · May 19, 2010

My .02?

I stand behind the Leo's having a search warrant and being able to come into a persons home to serve it. It depends on how they feel they will be approached when serving the warrant. If with force then they might just bust the door down with surprise to get things under control faster. Another way would be to knock at the door to give the people inside a chance to do it the easy way. It depends on the circumstances on the case.

Now how would a man or woman react when someone breaks their door down? If I was close to that door, I would give anyone who came in after breaking my door in an a** whipping. That would be my reaction. Anyone who breaks into my house is gonna have their butt handed to them! I have family in here! And 4 young children!

If it was the Cops I might not be able to determine that Immediately. And I might get shoot or killed. A bad guy could break into your house and scream he's a cop but not be one.

Anyway someone who is not supposed to be in your house is breaking in. Some of us are not wired to just stand there and see what will happen next. Some of us can take in and quickly obey orders when our home has just been invaded by someone who isn't supposed to be there.

I don't know what really happened, but there are many ways a person can react. Not meaning to be against the cops but just a reaction may be what happened.

One more thing. Just because someone in your house did something illegal doesn't mean you know they did it.

phathom · May 19, 2010

Martini_Up said:
Again, no place does it say the woman physically resisted. What is does say is there was physical contact with the woman. Knowing what flash-bangs do to people, I'm confident the woman was completely dazed, couldn't hear and the cop yelled at her to get on the ground. Unable to comply as she couldn't hear and disorientated (due to the flash-bang), the cop initiated contact and then the ND caused the child's death.

At no place does it say there were flash-bangs used either. Physical contact is there, flash bangs are not. Stop trying to defend the woman by injecting "facts" that are not present.

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Officer's gun accidentally kills 7 year old (daughter?) of suspect.

CharlesAFerg

Doubletap

clearconscience

phathom

Trlsmn

jordanvraptor

deen_ad

GUNNY

4Freedom

CEF1959

MarkSBG

flinch444

Atroxus

Martini_Up

Jamie6.5

flinch444

phathom

Martini_Up

Father of four

phathom

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