Crime show ("The First 48") taped Detroit raid that led to 7-year-old's death

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Last Updated: May 17. 2010 1:08PM
Crime show taped Detroit raid that led to 7-year-old's death
George Hunter and Paul Egan / The Detroit News


Detroit -- An attorney representing the family of a 7-year-old girl shot to death during a Sunday morning raid says the family knows the Detroit police officer who fired the fatal shot is "not a monster" but said the police operation was flawed and influenced by TV production concerns.

The police "were excited; they were on TV," said Oak Park attorney Karri Mitchell, who is representing the family of Aiyana Jones. "They didn't have to throw a grenade through the front window when they knew there were children in there."

The attempted arrest of a murder suspect at a two-unit house on Lillibridge on the city's east side was videotaped for an episode of "The First 48," a reality crime show on the Arts & Entertainment Network, Detroit police spokesman John Roach. He was not immediately available this morning to respond to Mitchell's allegations that the police operation was influenced by TV production values.

Investigators this morning are poring over the videotape the TV crew shot to help determine what happened, Roach said.

Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20100517/METRO/5170371#ixzz0oDPzzOrq

[Lost4words]

1. Wow, this changes things! Why are video production crews allowed to be there?

thats just wrong.

[truthisfreedom]

2. I hate those shows more than anything on cable. Maybe this will help bring an end to this nonsense.

Why we glorify police action is far beyond my comprehension. It's bad enough that police have no choice but to take certain actions, but glorifying it? Totally unacceptable.

[Ian David]

4. We should cancel all those shows except Reno 911. n/t

[Downwinder]

3. I thought officers didn't like to be photographed.

Or is that just in New York, St. Paul and Pittsburgh?

[Bozita]

5. WOW! DFP report -- "Fieger: The shot was fired from outside Aiyana home"

http://www.freep.com/article/20100517/NEWS01/100517037/1318/Fieger-The-shot-was-fired-from-outside-Aiyana-home

POSTED: 12:50 P.M. MAY 17, 2010 | UPDATED: 3:03 P.M. TODAY
Fieger: The shot was fired from outside Aiyana home
7-year-old killed during police raid Sunday
BY JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Comments (154) Recommend (8) Print E-mail Letter to the editor Share


Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger said this afternoon that he has viewed videotape that shows the gunshot that killed 7-year-old Aiyana Jones came from outside the house and not after an altercation inside the door as police officials have claimed.

“It’s not an accident. It’s not a mistake. There was no altercation,” Fieger said. “The bullet was shot from outside the house.”

Fieger, who is representing the dead girl’s family, said he will file lawsuits on their behalf on Tuesday.

He would not disclose the source of the videotape, but said it shows the event from before the police raid until after the girl’s body was carried outside.

more...

[B3Nut]

31. Fieger's their legal beagle?

Oh hell, the city and police department are toast. That cop will be on a metaphorical pike in the courtroom when Fieger gets done with him. Kick some ass, Geoffrey!

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Beaverhausen]

6. so let me get this straight

police throw a 'flash grenade' that emits a blinding flash and a loud noise to disorient the people inside the home, then they storm in with guns drawn and expect those inside to simply not react? And if said residents react, they shoot them, or at least anyone nearby, including children and dogs.

Oh yeah, and of course they were in the wrong home.

Have I missed anything?

[Karenina]

7. They were informed PRIOR TO THEIR ACTION that children were in the home.

[JoeyT]

11. Even worse,

they toss a flash grenade that makes a huge noise that causes temporary deafness, then announce that they're police AFTER they deafen everyone in the house. Then they act like a bunch of victims when people don't obey orders that they can't hear.

[snooper2]

8. Well I bet the execs at A&E

don't air that episode

[msanthrope]

12. oh--it will aired at their depositions.....

I hope that family takes them to the cleaners.

[seeviewonder]

9. I saw on MSNBC an hour or two ago that

the Michigan State Police are handling the investigation.  In
my opinion, I think it is a bit of a conflict of interest when
you let police officers review what other police officers did.
 The state police will ultimately reveal what
"happened" to the public but I doubt it will be the
exact truth.  They shouldn't be allowed to review the case;
the feds should do it.

[tomhayes]

10. The First 48 is a great show

It's not one of those cheap/scandalous shows you might be thinking of.

The "production values" are much, much less action oriented than "COPS." Usually during raids the cameras are across the street and stationary. They have microphones hooked to the police but no one enters with them.

Let's hope the cameras caught any wrongdoing (or lack of wrong doing) on video.

[msanthrope]

13. "the First 48" is "Cops" with detectives instead of street patrol.....

Same rights violations, but without the cool theme music.

[tomhayes]

14. "Same rights violations"??

I have never seen a homicide detective pull someone over for being in s drug zone, or missing tail late cover.

They also don't chase down shirtless suspects who leap from trailer parks and throw their cell phones at the officer.

I guess you want them to air the Miranda readings before each interview? (They do sometimes.)

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

15. I think we have radically different definitions for "great"

I likes it when they bust the eeveldooers, Mabel!

[alp227]

16. Good to see A&E getting investigated.

In fact, on a recent episode of Cops an officer from Maricopa County Sheriff (yes the office led by none other than ol' crook Joe Arpaio) arresting someone who was WALKING AWAY FROM A TRAFFIC STOP SCENE after being told to leave! It seems that the presence of a camera crew influences police actions some sort of a bit because the production company would pay the department more, and in the era of recessionary budget cuts the police would do any prostitute move to get some extra cash. Right next to uber-expensive traffic and parking tickets.

[npk]

17. Aiyana Jones case, attorney says Video shows police fired into Detroit home

Source: The Washington Post

DETROIT -- An attorney for the family of a 7-year-old girl who was killed by a police officer's bullet during a weekend raid at their home said Monday that he saw video of the raid that contradicts the police department's version of what happened.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said he watched three or four minutes of video that showed police fired into the home after lobbing a flash grenade through the window. He said this contradicts the police department's story, which was that the officer's gun discharged during a struggle or collision inside the home with the girl's grandmother.

"There is no question about what happened because it's in the videotape," Fieger said. "It's not an accident. It's not a mistake. There was no altercation.

"The gun was fired before anyone goes through the door. There are lights all over, like it's a television set."

A camera crew for the cable television crime-reality series "The First 48" was at the raid, although Fieger declined to say whether the video he watched was shot by the crew.

A&E spokesman Dan Silberman said neither he nor anyone else from the network would comment about the case.

Fieger said more than one camera was recording at the scene.

"It demonstrates conclusively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what happened in this case," the attorney said. "The pictures don't lie. It's got sound and everything."

Michigan State Police detectives have taken charge of the investigation.

Detroit police were trying to obtain any footage of the raid captured by the film crew, which had been shadowing city homicide investigators almost daily since early this year, Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said Monday.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/17/AR2010051700703.html?sub=AR

[rocktivity]

18. Ruh roh

The fact that they didn't know which apartment the perp lived in doesn't help much, either.

x(
rocktivity

[bemildred]

20. Ruh Roh indeed.

That could blow the "Grandma made me do it" argument out of the water.

[PSPS]

19. Wonderful. A police action "sexed up" for the reality tee vee crew tagging along.

Too bad the little girl was murdered, but it will mean boffo ratings!!1!!

[Downwinder]

21. Don't think they will get the pyrotechnics effect they desired.

[dlfuller]

22. over and over police lies

[msanthrope]

23. Geoffrey Fieger is going to fuck the Detroit PD. Hard.

The family could not have picked better....

[sendero]

24. Once again..

.... video documentation is at direct odds with what the police claim.

One wonders how many times the cops lie and there's no camera around to tell the truth?

[SocialistLez]

25. I don't even want to think about it. NT

[1monster]

26. Makes you wonder how many innocent people are in prison because of police lies...

[Macoy]

30. police lying hurts society

“One wonders how many times the cops lie and there's no camera around to tell the truth?”

We have a Bingo!

At one time, a police officers’ word was taken as gospel. The police have blown that image as video after video clearly shows the police lying. As a result, a lot of the public no longer believe a word a police officer says, and the police have only them selves to blame.

In the end; the police lying hurts society. I was on a jury at a trial were the defendant’s testimony conflicted with the police officer’s testimony. We had a hung jury because 4 members of the jury believed the word of a admitted drug dealer over the word of a police officer. And now, because the police lack credibility due to lying so often, a drug dealer walked.

I realy wish I lived in a world where I could believe the police, but I do not.

Macoy

[Politicalboi]

27. Cops should be made to wear

Small video camera's so there IS no mistake on how things went down.

[armodem08]

28. Agreed.

Now the only question is: how many shootings like this, involving police cover-ups, will it take to force police to implement it? They're already somewhat standard on Tasers, I believe. Cameras could have helped in New Orleans too, post-Katrina.

Arguably, it's the least the police can do after pushing massive video surveillance on us.

[Divine Discontent]

29. there we go!!! I like that! they're the ones who aren't bad, so they should have NO probs agreeing

to wearing them...