Police shot a 7-year-old while sleeping
Aiyana Jones, 7, was sleeping on the living room sofa in her family’s apartment when Detroit police in search for a homicide suspect came in and an officer’s gun went off, gravely striking the girl in the neck.
Charles Jones, her father, 25, said he had just gone to bed early Sunday after covering his daughter with her favorite Disney princess blanket when he heard a flash grenade followed by a gunshot. When he scurried into the living room, he said, police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter’s blood.
"I’ll never be the same. That’s my only daughter," Jones said in an a radio interview.
According to Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee, officers set off the 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 murder of a 17-year-old boy. The lead officer’s gun went off after he encountered a 46-year-old woman inside the front room of the home and "some level of physical contact" ensued. Police do not believe the gun was fired intentionally.
"This is any parent’s worst nightmare. It also is any police officer’s worst nightmare," Godbee said.
Family and relatives of the little girl are all grieving, claiming that it was a wrongful death. Charles Jones wanted his story to be told.
The target suspect was arrested after searching the building but Godbee refused to comment when asked if they bothered to find out first if there are children inside the building.
Charles Jones said he was struggling not to be angry but wanted the story to be told. He said Aiyana was a lively child who loved to sing and had recently developed an interest in Hannah Montana and the Justin Bieber song "Baby."
"She was just figuring out what she liked, what she wanted to do with her life," her father said. "I want this story to be heard. This was a wrongful death."
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