Aftermath News

Officers would be keeping an eye on him in the future, adding: “The council will periodically visit the site to monitor the situation.”

Pruning twigs leads to £20k fine threat

expressandstar.com | May 17, 2010

When the Highways Agency chopped down dozens of trees shielding his home from the busy M6 last year, pensioner Bryan Wiseman had to simply put up with it.

But after pruning a couple of branches from a hawthorn tree overhanging his garden in Woodside Way, Short Heath, the 70-year-old has been stunned by the threat of a court fine of up to £20,000.

The letter from Walsall Council is even harder to swallow for Mr Wiseman, as he has spent years tending to  Rough Wood at the back of his home as a member of a committee looking after the beauty spot.

The retired engineer is accused of removing the branches of a tree protected by a tree preservation order  without proper permission. A letter from regeneration officer Cameron

Gibson said no more action would be taken in this instance, but warned the grandfather-of-two officers would be keeping an eye on him in the future, adding: “The council will periodically visit the site to monitor the situation and you are advised that no further pruning or felling works should be undertaken.”

Mr Wiseman said: “I am not trying to destroy the thing, I want to get it to branch out a bit and thicken the bush up. We are talking about three-quarters of an inch diameter twigs, I took them off with secateurs, it was a very minor operation.

“The Highways Agency took down trees that were 40 years old  it’s double standards.”

Mr Wiseman and his wife Noreen were shocked when workers began felling more than 100 yards of trees at the back of their home last February.

The trees had been the only buffer between them and the noise and fumes from the motorway

It has sparked fury among residents on the Beechdale Estate and Short Heath who say they have been left more exposed to the constant racket of the M6 yards from their homes.

Simon Tranter, head of regeneration, development and delivery for Walsall Council, said: “Trees covered by tree preservation orders cannot be pruned or felled without the council’s permission.

“In this case no permission was sought and a letter advising the resident of the correct procedure was sent to him. It clearly states no action will be taken against him but does outline the possible penalties available to us if a tree preservation order is breached which can include a fine of up to £20,000 if convicted by a magistrates court.”

Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones show a picture of their daughter Aiyana, a 7-year-old who was fatally shot by Detroit police during a raid on their home early Sunday. (David Coates / The Detroit News)

Detroit News | May 19, 2010

State, federal suits filed against department; sources identify veteran cop as the shooter

by Doug Guthrie and George Hunter

Southfield — The family of a 7-year-old girl killed during a Sunday raid on the home where she was sleeping says the Detroit Police Department is not only responsible for her death, but that its officers launched a cover-up within minutes.

“They were trying to get someone else to take the rap,” said Geoffrey Fieger, the Southfield attorney who is representing the girl’s family.

Fieger filed lawsuits Tuesday in U.S. District Court and Wayne Circuit Court claiming civil rights violations, gross negligence and conspiracy by police to hide the facts behind Aiyana Stanley Jones’ death.

“They were trying right there on the scene to get another officer to take the blame. Someone with a record that didn’t have any prior shootings,” Fieger said.

Although police have declined to name the officer whose gun discharged and killed the girl, sources have identified him as Joseph Weekley, 34, a member of the department’s Special Response Team for at least six years.

Police at first suggested the errant shot was the result of a physical altercation between the officer and the girl’s grandmother inside the house.

Mertilla Jones was arrested and held for nearly 12 hours Sunday. Before she was released, she said, she submitted to a drug test and a chemical test on her hands to determine the possible presence of gunpowder that would have indicated she was close to a discharged firearm.

Later on Sunday, police said the two may have simply collided inside the house. On Tuesday, Mertilla Jones said she never touched an officer, but instead hit the floor when a flash grenade went off. She then noticed her granddaughter’s horrific wound.

“I said, ‘You F’ed up. Gone and killed my grandbaby,’” Mertilla Jones said.. “One of them yelled, ‘Oh s—!’ They took her up in their arms and ran out the house with her.”

Police Chief Warren Evans returned from an overseas vacation Tuesday but canceled a midday press conference. He instead issued a written statement:

“I want to say to the entire Jones family, Aiyana’s loved ones and friends, how terribly sorry I am for your loss. I have children and grandchildren and cannot comprehend losing one of them, especially under such painful circumstances. I will never be able to put myself in your shoes.

“Although the investigation into the circumstances of Aiyana’s death is now being conducted by the Michigan State Police, the Detroit Police Department has its own painful self-examination to undergo,” Evans said. “Whatever our findings, they won’t be pretty. There is no way they can be under these circumstances. They won’t be pretty, but they will be honest.”
Bullet struck Aiyana in neck

Aiyana Jones was sleeping on a living room sofa when she was struck in the neck by a bullet during the police raid around 12:40 a.m. Sunday in the duplex occupied by four siblings and six adults.

Police burst into the home on Lillibridge just west of Mack Avenue looking for a murder suspect. Fieger said 34-year-old Chauncey Owens was arrested in a separate upstairs flat in the home. He is the fiance of LaKrystal Sanders, one of Aiyana’s aunts.

Owens is the suspect in the Friday night slaying of a 17-year-old outside of a liquor store. Although he has been jailed since Sunday, he has yet to be charged.

At a press conference where he announced the lawsuits, Fieger called on other Detroit Police officers who participated in the raid to step forward and tell Evans and others what they saw at the scene.
Video recording viewed

Fieger said he viewed a video recording that captured a perfect angle of the incident as it occurred, and recorded a debate between officers about whether they had properly obtained warrants to enter both the upstairs and downstairs residences that have separate addresses.

Fieger also said he fears the video recording he was shown, but not allowed to copy, might be destroyed if Detroit Police get it first.

“You all know what happened at this scene. Please don’t let this child have died in vain,” said Fieger, who declined to identify the source of the video.

Producers of the reality television series “The First 48,” which airs on the A&E network and features the first two days of murder investigations, confirmed its crew was filming during the incident.

But Fieger indicated he hasn’t spoken with anyone from the network. The show is cooperating with police in the probe, and investigators have examined the footage taken by the crew at the scene early Sunday morning.

Fieger said the three-minute video shows the gunshot fired came from the porch of the two-story duplex shortly after a “flash-bang” grenade was tossed into the home by breaking a window.

He pointed out that the video contradicts police accounts that the officer fired when he had a physical contact inside the home with Mertilla Jones.

“This type of activity by a police force is unacceptable in America,” Fieger said.

Darleen Conyers, spokeswoman for 36th District Court administration, said the court couldn’t confirm the arrest warrants requested by police and allegedly signed by a magistrate because the court keeps no copies.

Police should have had warrants that listed the specific addresses raided downstairs and upstairs Sunday morning, said Larry Dubin, professor at University of Detroit Mercy Law School. But the arrest of the 34-year-old suspect probably has not been compromised even if the warrant for the correct address was obtained later.

He said the admissibility of evidence obtained from the address in the initial raid could be a problem.

Fieger said Owens surrendered to police upstairs without incident.
A big problem

Dubin said the biggest problem for the city, now that the lawsuits have been filed, is the threat of being forced to pay Aiyana’s family a very large amount of money for damages.

“If the version of the facts that have been reported by Mr. Fieger is proven to be true, the city of Detroit will likely face a substantial settlement or perhaps an even greater verdict rendered against it,” Dubin said. “The potential for a multimillion-dollar verdict would have no clear ceiling in my estimation.”

Aiyana Jones’ step aunt Kayia White and step mom Dominique Simpson, right, sit on the front porch next to a blood spattered sofa in Detroit on Sunday, May 16, 2010 in Detroit. Jones, 7, was shot and killed when an officer’s gun went off during contact with a woman in a house where Detroit police were searching for a suspect in the slaying of a teenager, a police official said. 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.

Police chief says investigation ‘won’t be pretty’

Associated Press | May 18, 2010

by Corey Williams

DETROIT – The police chief acknowledged Tuesday that findings from an investigation into the death of a 7-year-old girl who was shot during a police raid “won’t be pretty, but they will be honest.”

Warren Evans, who was hired last summer in part to make sure Detroit’s police change the way they use force, cut short an overseas vacation and returned to the city Tuesday, just as an attorney for the family of Aiyana Stanley-Jones announced two lawsuits claiming officers violated the girl’s rights.

“Although the investigation into the circumstances of Aiyana’s death is now being conducted by the Michigan State Police, the Detroit Police Department has its own painful self-examination to undergo,” Evans said in an e-mail statement.

Aiyana Jones in a recent home photo. Photo AP

Aiyana was shot in the neck when police raided her home while searching for a 34-year-old murder suspect.

Her family was represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who demanded that police provide answers.

“You all know what happened at the scene. Please don’t let this child die in vain,” Fieger said in an appeal to members of the department’s Special Response Team, which raided the ramshackle home early Sunday after obtaining a search warrant.

Police have said an officer’s gun accidentally went off inside the house after officers confronted or collided with the girl’s grandmother. But Fieger said a videotape shows the shot was fired from the porch after a flash-bang grenade was lobbed through a window.

Fieger said he viewed three or four minutes of video footage of the raid. He would not say who recorded the events, but a camera crew for the A&E reality series “The First 48″ was filming the raid.

The video shows a group of black-hooded officers approaching the house, the grenade being thrown and the fatal shot, he said.

“We know there’s only one shot. It’s vividly depicted in the videotape … right after the (grenade) throw and the explosion of the bomb. At that point, the officers rush into the home,” said Fieger, who is best known for representing assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Fieger did not retain a copy of the footage.

Dan Silberman, a spokesman for A&E, declined to comment and denied a request by The Associated Press to view the footage.

The lawsuits filed in federal court in Detroit and in Wayne County Circuit Court claim police knew there were children in the home but conducted the raid with guns drawn anyway.

Officers had the family home under surveillance on Saturday, said Fieger, who added that three other children — ages 3 months, 2 years and 4 years — were inside.

“Certainly, they were aware children were living at the home,” Fieger said.

Aiyana’s cousin, Mark Robinson, told reporters Tuesday that he was walking the family’s dogs on the night of the raid when police threw him to the ground.

“I told them, ‘There are children in the house,’” Robinson said.

The federal lawsuit claims police violated Aiyana’s constitutional rights and seeks an unspecified cash award of more than $75,000. A four-count lawsuit filed in county court seeks damages of more than $25,000. Those figures are preliminary, and the actual amounts the family seeks are likely to be much higher.

The homicide suspect, who was wanted in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy outside a convenience store, was arrested in the upstairs unit of the house.

Evans said the department was prepared to hear the worst from the investigation.

“Whatever our findings, they won’t be pretty. There is no way they can be under these circumstances. They won’t be pretty, but they will be honest,” he said.

Police apologized and even offered the services of department chaplains to people in the community.

“I want to say to the entire Jones family, Aiyana’s loved ones and friends, how terribly sorry I am for your loss,” Evans said in his statement. “I have children and grandchildren and cannot comprehend losing one of them, especially under such painful circumstances. I will never be able to put myself in your shoes.”

The department has been under two court-ordered consent decrees since 2003 aimed at, among other things, correcting how and when its officers use force on suspects.

Mayor Dave Bing hired Evans in July after Justice Department officials said the city and police had been lax in meeting terms of the agreements.