Aiyana Stanley-Jones; Murdered by Detroit Police Officer

On May 16, 2010, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7 years old, was murdered in her sleep by Officer Joseph Weekley, who shot her in the head with his sub-machine gun. She was sleeping on the couch at her grandmothers house when Weekley and other officers raided the wrong apartment. This is a tragic but sadly perfect example of how cops shoot without caution, care or out of “fear for their lives”.

After an officer outside threw a flash grenade threw the window and Weekley could see, he pointed the sub-machine gun (why do police need sub-machine guns?) at the precious 7 year old girl sleeping, and shot her in the head; killing her.

His defense? He claimed her grandmother tried to knock the gun out of his hands thus resulting in him pulling the trigger. There is no evidence of that, however. No finger prints but his are on that gun. No blood is on anyone’s hands but his own. It’s beyond me how he can sleep at night knowing he aimed his gun and killed a sleeping child and then lied, blaming the grandmother for his actions. She had been traumatized enough without his cruel words being spoken. How could anyone with a heart even fathom to kill anyone much less an innocent child; and then place the blame on the grandmother, who witnessed the entire thing? That is a special kind of evil.

Aiyana’s grandmother says she never touched the officer but instead ran towards her granddaughter, which makes complete sense for a human being to do in this situation. We don’t even need the physical evidence to know that what happened is exactly what her grandma said happened as it’s basic human nature. But the physical evidence should have helped.

It took three years before the officer was taken to trial. Weekley has been tried twice for this horrific crime, both resulting in deadlock or a mistrial. Interestingly enough, the defense proposed a motion that the judge at the first trial denied. The judge in the second case for some reason decided to approve the same motion, which dismissed the felony charge of “involuntary” manslaughter. Because of Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway’s decision to accept the motion by defense Aiyana’s case cannot be appealed under law. The defense attorney said the following in response:

“Today we personally informed the family of Aiyana Stanley-Jones that we have made a decision that we would not be going to trial for a third time in the Joseph Weekley case. It is unfortunate that Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway granted a directed verdict dismissing the felony Manslaughter charge, leaving only the misdemeanor count of Careless Discharge Causing Injury or Death. Under the law her decision cannot be appealed.  On Friday, January 30, 2015 at 9:00 a.m., we will move to dismiss the case.”

What a wonderful nation we have; what a wonderful legal system we have, that allows killers to get off and then ensure there are no more appeals or He swore to protect citizens, but that is the last thing he did. Police should be held to a higher standard than citizens when they murder someone; especially a sleeping child. Outrage should be seen across this nation; but nothing like that has happened nor will it.

Weekely is still on the streets as a cop. He has never been punished for this unspeakable crime. During the investigation he was placed on paid leave, which is nothing more than a paid vacation. That’s no punishment and he hasn’t had any form of discipline whatsoever for the murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones.

How many more times do we have to go through this; how many times does police murder and beatings have to occur before the people, including you the reader get angry and we all unite against the true enemy?